[1] He was born in Leicester and educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and Exeter College, Oxford, where his studies were interrupted by tuberculosis.
In 1978 he left Imperial College to work on telescope design at Greenwich Observatory, finally moving in 1987 to the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.
Wynne is distinguished for his work in aberration theory and for his development of new mathematical methods embodied in the first successful computer programmes for the optimisation of optical systems of many kinds.
Examples of the work undertaken by Wynne include optical systems for sir navigation, for space research, for particle physics (CERN, CEA Saclay, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA) and for astronomy (for the Isaac Newton Telescope of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Palomar, Kitt Peak, and McDonald Observatories).
Prior to 1960, Wynne worked in industry where he was particularly noted for developing, for the RAF, a series of high-performance survey lenses for aerial photography.