Geoffrey Ingram Taylor

Taylor, Geoffrey Ingram 

Born Mar. 7, 1886, in London; died June 27, 1975, in Cambridge. English scientist in the field of mechanics. Member of the Royal Society of London from 1919.

Taylor graduated from Cambridge University in 1910, and in 1913 he was the meteorologist on an arctic expedition. In 1919 he began teaching at Cambridge University. He was a research professor at the Royal Society from 1923 to 1951. In 1944–45 he worked on the problem of nuclear explosions at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (USA).

Taylor’s main works, which included experimental studies, dealt with continuum mechanics. Taylor made a fundamental contribution to the theory of turbulence, developing the theory of stability of flows of a viscous fluid and the theory of turbulent diffusion; he was also the author of the semiempirical theory of turbulence, and he studied homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. He wrote several works that laid the foundation for the theory of dislocations. He studied, the aerodynamics of airplanes and parachutes, as well as transonic flow around a body, waves in fluids, and problems in meteorology. He also carried out research on microorganisms.

Taylor was elected a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1966; he was also a member of many other academies.

WORKS

Scientific Papers, vols. 1–4. Cambridge, 1958–71.
In Russian translation:
“O perenose vikhrei i tepla pri turbulentnom dvizhenii zhidkostei.” In the collection Problemy turbulentnosti. Moscow-Leningrad, 1936.
“Rezul’taty issledovanii dvizheniia pri bol’shikh skorostiakh.” In the collection Gazovaia dinamika. Moscow-Leningrad, 1939.
“Sovremennoe sostoianie teorii turbulentnoi diffuzii.” In the collection Atmosfernaia diffuziia i zagriaznenie vozdukha. Moscow, 1962.

REFERENCES

Southwell, R. V. “G. I. Taylor: A Biographical Note.” In the collection Surveys in Mechanics. Cambridge, 1956.
McGraw-Hill Modern Men of Science, vol. 2. [New York, 1968.]