Fred Taylor (physicist)

Professor Taylor in March 2016

Fredric William Taylor is a British physicist and academic. He is Halley Professor of Physics Emeritus at the University of Oxford.

Early life and education

Taylor was born in Amble, Northumberland, England. His father, William, was a joiner who had been wounded in WW2, and his mother, Ena, was a teacher. In 1949, the family moved to Howick, Northumberland. He was educated at The Duke's School, then an all-boys school in Alnwick. He studied physics at the University of Liverpool, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree. He then undertook postgraduate research in atmospheric physics at Jesus College, Oxford under the supervision of Sir John Houghton, and graduated from the University of Oxford with a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree.

Academic career

In 1970, Taylor joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology. He was principal investigator for the first experiment into the meteorology of the atmosphere of Venus, building an instrument for the Pioneer Venus Orbiter that launched in 1978. Arriving at Venus in December 1978, this included the first British-built hardware to travel to another planet. He was also involved in the mission that sent the unmanned spacecraft Galileo to study Jupiter and its moons.

In 1980, he returned to Oxford University where he became Professor and Head of Department. Under his leadership, the Group was involved in space missions to study the atmospheres of Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Titan, as well as Mercury, the Moon, and a comet. In 1999, one of the Oxford projects placed the first British-built hardware on the surface of Mars, albeit unwittingly.

Taylor has written twelve books on atmospheric and planetary physics. In September 2011, he retired from full-time academia and from the Halley Professorship of Physics.

Selected works

Academic

Personal