John Bryan Taylor

{{Short description|British physicist (1928–2026)}} {{Other people|John Taylor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox scientist | name = John Bryan Taylor | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1928|12|26|df=yes}} | birth_place = Birmingham, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2026|5|14|1928|12|26|df=yes}} | death_place = Wiltshire, England | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | citizenship = | fields = Plasma physics | workplaces = | alma_mater = | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | awards = {{plainlist| * James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize (1971) * Max Born Medal and Prize (1979) * James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics (1999) * Hannes Alfvén Prize (2004) }} | signature =  | signature_alt = | footnotes = | spouse = }}

'''John Bryan Taylor''' (26 December 1928 – 14 May 2026) was a British physicist known for his contributions to plasma physics and their application in the field of fusion energy. Notable among these is the development of the "Taylor state", describing a minimum-energy configuration that conserves magnetic helicity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hart|first1=G. W.|last2=Janos|first2=A.|last3=Meyerhofer|first3=D. D.|last4=Yamada|first4=M.|date=1986|title=Verification of the Taylor (minimum energy) state in a spheromak|journal=The Physics of Fluids|volume=29|issue=6|pages=1994–1997|doi=10.1063/1.865627|bibcode=1986PhFl...29.1994H|issn=0031-9171}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Diamond|first1=P. H.|last2=Malkov|first2=M.|date=2003|title=Dynamics of helicity transport and Taylor relaxation|journal=Physics of Plasmas|volume=10|issue=6|pages=2322–2329|doi=10.1063/1.1576390|bibcode=2003PhPl...10.2322D|issn=1070-664X|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7h1462xb|doi-access=free}}</ref> Another development was his work on the ballooning transformation, which describes the motion of plasma in toroidal (donut) configurations, which are used in the fusion field.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Connor|first1=J. W.|last2=Hastie|first2=R. J.|last3=Taylor|first3=J. B.|date=1978|title=Shear, Periodicity, and Plasma Ballooning Modes|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=40|issue=6|pages=396–399|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.40.396|bibcode=1978PhRvL..40..396C}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Connor|first1=J. W.|last2=Taylor|first2=J. B.|date=1987|title=Ballooning modes or Fourier modes in a toroidal plasma?|journal=The Physics of Fluids|volume=30|issue=10|pages=3180–3185|doi=10.1063/1.866493|bibcode=1987PhFl...30.3180C|issn=0031-9171}}</ref> Taylor has also made contributions to the theory of the Earth's Dynamo, including the Taylor constraint.<ref>Taylor, J. B. 1963. "The magnetohydrodynamics of a rotating fluid and the Earth's dynamo problem,". Proc. R. Soc. London, A274: 274–283.</ref>

== Life and career == Taylor was born in Birmingham on 26 December 1928.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hay |first=Jennifer |date=26 January 2009 |title=Eighty years young |url=http://www.iter.org/newsline/66/199 |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=ITER |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-37121|title=Taylor, Prof. John Bryan, (born 26 Dec. 1928), Fondren Professor of Plasma Theory, University of Texas at Austin, 1989–94; Chief Physicist, 1981–89, Consultant, 1994–2008, UKAEA Culham Laboratory {{!}} WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|website=www.ukwhoswho.com|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U37121|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4 |access-date=2020-03-04}}</ref> He served in the Royal Air Force from 1950 to 1952, and then took his PhD at Birmingham University in 1955. Upon graduation, he joined the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, and in 1962 moved to the Culham Laboratory, where he became Chief Physicist. He held several other positions during this period, including the Commonwealth Fund Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley in 1959 to 1960, the Institute for Advanced Study in 1969, 1973 and 1980–81, and finally took the position of Fondren Professor of Plasma Theory at the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. Taylor was still actively involved in fusion science, working with Culham laboratory and Oxford University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1970.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/about-us/fellowship/Fellows1660-2007.pdf | title = List of Fellows of the Royal Society 1660 – 2007|publisher = Royal Society| access-date = 2012-03-02}}</ref>

Taylor died on 14 May 2026, at the age of 97.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-05-16 |title=Dr. John Bryan Taylor United Kingdom Death Obituary – Pioneer of Plasma Physics and Fusion Science Remembered Worldwide – Newslandmemoir |url=https://newslandmemoir.today/dr-john-bryan-taylor-united-kingdom-death-obituary/ |access-date=2026-05-16 |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Honours and awards == Taylor won the Institute of Physics's James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize in 1971,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iop.org/about/awards/early-career/maxwell/medallists/page_38660.html|title=Maxwell medal recipients|website=www.iop.org|access-date=2020-03-04|archive-date=23 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200623035732/https://www.iop.org/about/awards/early-career/maxwell/medallists/page_38660.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the Max Born Medal and Prize in 1979.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iop.org/about/awards/bilateral/born/medallists/page_38473.html|title=Born medal recipients|website=www.iop.org|access-date=2020-03-04}}</ref> He then went on to win the American Physical Society's James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics in 1999.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?last_nm=Taylor&first_nm=John&year=1999|title=1999 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics Recipient|website=American Physical Society|language=en|access-date=2020-03-04}}</ref>

He initiated the study of chaos in magnetic surfaces, developing several contributions to chaos theory and introducing the "standard map" (or Chirikov–Taylor map).<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rechester|first1=A. B.|last2=Rosenbluth|first2=M. N.|last3=White|first3=R. B.|date=1981|title=Fourier-space paths applied to the calculation of diffusion for the Chirikov-Taylor model|journal=Physical Review A|volume=23|issue=5|pages=2664–2672|doi=10.1103/PhysRevA.23.2664|bibcode=1981PhRvA..23.2664R}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Beaufume|first1=P.|last2=Dubois|first2=M. A.|last3=Benkadda|first3=M. S. Mohamed|date=1990|title=Diffusion in the noisy Chirikov-Taylor mapping|journal=Physics Letters A|language=en|volume=147|issue=2|pages=87–91|doi=10.1016/0375-9601(90)90873-M|bibcode=1990PhLA..147...87B|issn=0375-9601}}</ref> He studied 2D-plasmas, demonstrating the inherent Bohm diffusion which had been noticed in magnetic bottles since the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hobbs|first1=G. D.|last2=Taylor|first2=J. B.|date=1968|title=Plasma diffusion in multipoles|journal=Plasma Physics|language=en|volume=10|issue=3|pages=207–212|doi=10.1088/0032-1028/10/3/301|bibcode=1968PlPh...10..207H|issn=0032-1028}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=J. B.|last2=McNamara|first2=B.|date=1971|title=Plasma Diffusion in Two Dimensions|journal=The Physics of Fluids|volume=14|issue=7|pages=1492–1499|doi=10.1063/1.1693635|bibcode=1971PhFl...14.1492T|issn=0031-9171}}</ref> He then played a major part in developing the "ballooning transformation" for toroidal plasmas, along with Jack Connor and Jim Hastie, which won him the 2004 Hannes Alfvén Prize.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lister|first=Dr Jo|date=2004|title=Award of the 2004 Hannes Alfvén Prize of the European Physical Society to J W Connor, R J Hastie and J B Taylor|journal=Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion|language=en|volume=46|issue=12B|doi=10.1088/0741-3335/46/12B/E02|s2cid=250876267 |issn=0741-3335}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John Bryan}} Category:1928 births Category:2026 deaths Category:British nuclear physicists Category:Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham Category:University of California, Berkeley fellows Category:University of Texas at Austin faculty Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society Category:British fellows of the Royal Society