Background
Taylor was born in Leicester in 1952 and educated at Wyggeston Grammar School.
Taylor was born in Leicester in 1952 and educated at Wyggeston Grammar School.
He gained a first class degree from Pembroke College, Oxford in 1973, and a Doctor of Philosophy from King"s College London with a thesis entitled Galois module structure of the ring of integers of l-extensions in 1976 under the supervision of Albrecht Fröhlich.
He was professor of pure mathematics at the School of Mathematics, University of Manchester and, prior to its formation and merger, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology where he was appointed to a chair after moving from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1986. On 5 November 2009 he was elected Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and took office on 2 October 2010. His early research concerned various properties and structures of algebraic numbers.
In 1981 he proved the Fröhlich conjecture relating the symmetries of algebraic integers to the behaviour of certain analytic functions called Artin L-functions.
In recent years his research has led him to study various aspects of arithmetic geometry: in particular, he and his collaborators have demonstrated how geometric properties of zeros of integral polynomials in many variables can be determined by the behaviour of associated L-functions. His hobbies include fly fishing and hill walking, and he is an enthusiastic supporter of Manchester United.
Taylor was awarded the London Mathematical Society Whitehead Prize in 1982 and shared the Adams Prize in 1983. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996. He was President of the London Mathematical Society from 1998 to 2000 and in 2004 was appointed Physical Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society. Taylor was knighted in the 2009 New Year Honours. Taylor received an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East Anglia in July 2012.
Royal Society.
