Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.

He married Marietta Bisson Taylor in 1976. The couple has three children.

Joseph H. Taylor Jr. was born on 29 March 1941, in Philadelphia, to Joseph Hooton Taylor Senior and Sylvia Evans Taylor. The family, which had Quaker origins, operated a farm of their own. He had five other siblings.

When Joseph was seven years old, the Taylor family shifted their base to Cinnaminson in New Jersey. He studied at the Moorestown Friends School located in the Moorestown Township in New Jersey. During his time in school, he showed a particular gift for mathematics.

After graduating from high school, he studied at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania and was awarded his bachelors’ degree in the year 1963. Subsequently he attended Harvard University, where he studied applied mathematics, physics and astronomy and in 1968, he completed his doctorate in astronomy.

Following his Ph.D., he worked at Harvard University for some time in the capacity of a researcher. In 1969, he joined the University of Massachusetts and during his 12 year stint there, he became Professor of Astronomy and Associate Director Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Following the discovery of the first radio pulsars in Cambridge, United Kingdom, he started working on the discovery of pulsars as well. He used the telescopes available at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory to make his first discovery of pulsars. In 1974, Joseph H. Taylor and his student, Russell A. Hulse, discovered the first pulsar in a binary system, named PSR B1913+16

He continued to conduct research on binary pulsars in collaboration with Russell A. Hulse and in 1978; the duo published a paper in relation to the binary pulsar PSR B1913 + 16 that experimentally proved the presence of gravitational waves. Albert Einstein had theorised on gravitational waves in his famous Theory of Relativity but Taylor and Hulse were successful in proving its existence.

In 1981, he quit his position at the University of Massachusetts and joined Princeton University in the capacity of a professor of physics. Five years later, he was made the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Physics at the same university. He also served as Dean of Faculty for six years and retired in 2006.

Other than research in physics, he was also involved in amateur radio weak signal communication research and has been a holder of multiple call signs in his career. He was also involved in creating new computer programmes and protocols related to communication technology.

He along with his student Russell Alan Hulse discovered the first pulsar in binary system, namely, PSR B1913 + 16 and his subsequent research proved the existence of gravitational waves. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for the same in 1993.