| Joseph H. Taylor, Jr.  AKA Joseph Hooten Taylor, Jr.
Born: 24-Mar-1941
Birthplace: Philadelphia, PA
Gender: Male
Religion: Quaker
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Astronomer, Physicist Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Co-Discovered first binary pulsar American astronomer Joseph H. Taylor Jr. was the co-discoverer, with Russell A. Hulse in 1974, of the first known binary pulsar. Registered under the rather innocuous title PSR 1913+16, this discovery has had a major impact in scientific circles. It allowed the development, by Taylor and others, of a means to detect and measure the gravitational waves as these two degenerate neutron stars orbit each other and interact.
In 1978, in an unprecedented test, Taylor provided the first verifiable evidence supporting Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (also called the Theory of Gravitation), showing the magnetic aspect of gravity. This work, which has practical ramifications in cosmology, fundamental astrometry, gravitational physics, stellar evolution, and time-keeping metrology, earned the Nobel Prize for Taylor and Hulse in 1993. Taylor continues to head pulsar investigations at Princeton, where his group has discovered myriad pulsars. Father: Joseph Hooton Taylor
Mother: Sylvia Evans Taylor
Brother: Harold E. Taylor ("Hal")
Wife: Marietta Bisson Taylor (m. 3-Jan-1976, three children)
Administrator: Moorestown Friends School, Moorestown, NJ (1959)
University: BA Physics, Haverford College (1963)
University: PhD Astronomy, Harvard University (1968)
Scholar: Astronomy, Harvard University (1968-69)
Professor: Astronomy, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1969-81)
Scholar: Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, University of Massachusetts (1969-81)
Professor: Physics, Princeton University (1981-86)
Professor: James S. McDonnell Dist. Univ. Prof. of Physics, Princeton University (1986-)
Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics 1980
MacArthur Fellowship 1981
Henry Draper Medal 1985
Tomalla Foundation Prize in Gravitation and Cosmology 1987
APS Magellanic Premium 1990
Albert Einstein Medal 1991
NAS John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science 1991
Wolf Prize in Physics 1992
Nobel Prize for Physics 1993 (with Russell A. Hulse)
GAS Karl Schwarzschild Medal 1997
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Astronomical Society
American Institute of Physics
American Philosophical Society
National Academy of Sciences
Asteroid Namesake 81859 Joetaylor
Author of books:
Pulsars (1977, with Richard N. Manchester)
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