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.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Taylor was born in Amble, Northumberland, England. His father, William, was a joiner who had been wounded in World War II, and his mother, Ena, was a teacher. In 1949, the family moved to Howick, Northumberland.^[3] He was educated at The Duke's School, then an all-boys school in Alnwick.^[3][4] He studied physics at the University of Liverpool, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree.^[5] 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.^[3][5]

Academic career

In 1970, Taylor joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology.^[3][6] 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.^[5] Arriving at Venus in December 1978, this included the first British-built hardware to travel to another planet.^[7] He was also involved in the mission that sent the unmanned spacecraft Galileo to study Jupiter and its moons.^[5]

In 1980, he returned to Oxford University where he became Professor and Head of Department.^[3] 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.^[8] In 1999, one of the Oxford projects placed the first British-built hardware on the surface of Mars, albeit unwittingly.^[9]

Taylor has written twelve books on atmospheric and planetary physics.^[10][11] In September 2011, he retired from full-time academia and from the Halley Professorship of Physics.^[6]

Selected works

Academic

• Taylor, Fredric W. (2001). The Cambridge photographic guide to the planets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521781831. 
• Lopez-Puertas, Manuel; Taylor, Fredric W. (2001). Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium in Atmospheres. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-9810245665. 
• Taylor, F. W. (2005). Elementary climate physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198567332. 
• Coustenis, Athena; Taylor, Fredric W. (2008). Titan: exploring an earthlike world (2nd ed.). Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-9812705013. 
• Taylor, Fredric W. (2010). The scientific exploration of Mars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521829564. 
• Taylor, F. W. (2010). Planetary Atmospheres. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199547425. 
• Vardavas, Ilias; Taylor, Fredric W. (2011). Radiation and Climate (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199697144. 
• Taylor, Fredric W. (2014). The scientific exploration of Venus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107023482. 

Personal

• Taylor, Fred (2016). Exploring the Planets: A Memoir. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199671595. 

References