Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. (PhD, Nobel)

Dr. Joseph Taylor, an American astrophysicist, was co-recipient of the Noble Prize in Physics for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, opening up new concepts for the study of gravitation. Taylor leveraged the observations of this binary pulsar to provide evidence for the existence of gravitational radiation, a theory first predicted by Albert Einstein. He grew up in New Jersey of modest Quaker origins. From an early age, he demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for mathematics, leading him to earn his PhD in astronomy from Harvard University in 1968. For Dr. Taylor, God and science go hand in hand when he said: "A scientific discovery is also a religious discovery. There is no conflict between science and religion. Our knowledge of God is made larger with every discovery we make about the world."