CODATA Prize 2000: Barry Taylor, USA
In 2000, the First CODATA Prize was awarded to Dr Barry Taylor of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (United States). He received the prize in Baveno/Stresa, Italy, on October 2000, during the 17th International CODATA Conference.
Dr. Taylor was cited for major contributions to the advancement of our understanding of the physical world through critically evaluated values of the fundamental physical constants.
For over 30 years, Dr. Taylor, working with colleagues throughout the world, has been at the forefront of measuring and evaluating data on the fundamental physical constants. This work has resulted in three decennial adjustments of the fundamental constants that provide a cohesive set of constants that are used by scientists and engineers in virtually every field of science and engineering.
These recommended values have had a profound influence on precision metrology. Working with partners including E. Richard Cohen and Peter Mohr, Taylor has pioneered new approaches to evaluating these data. The CODATA Recommend Values and periodic adjustments to the Fundamental Physical Constants are published Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data and the Reviews of Modern Physics.
Barry Taylor served for six years as Chairman of the CODATA Task Group on Fundamental Constants and is still an active member of that group. Taylor is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Washington Academy of Science.
He has been made an Honorary Foreign Member of the Academy of Metrology of the Russian Federation and was Past Chair of the American Physical Society Topical Group on Precision Measurements and Fundamental Constants.
Dr. Taylor’s early work on the ac Josephson effect first made it known to the world that measurements of quantum phenomena in condensed matter physics could provide information on the fundamental constants. Such measurements have been an important source of information since then.
Barry Taylor has also organized two international conferences on fundamental constants that have stimulated communication and interest in the field. For recent generations of workers in science and technology, any mention of the fundamental constants brings Barry Taylor’s name to mind.
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Barry Taylor’s professional profile: ResearchGate;