Joseph H. Taylor Jr. (1941- )

Awarded the Prize “for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation.”

American astrophysicist. Taylor was born in Philadelphia on March 29, 1941. He was educated at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, at Harvard University where he gained his Ph.D. in astronomy in 1968. He moved to the University of Massachusetts in 1969 was appointed Professor of Astronomy in 1977. In 1980 he was elected Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.