John Bryan Taylor, a British physicist, died on May 14, 2026, at the age of 97.
Born in Birmingham on December 26, 1928, he was known for his contributions to plasma physics and their application to fusion energy. Among his notable work was the development of the Taylor state, a minimum-energy configuration that conserves magnetic helicity, and his work on the ballooning transformation.
Taylor served in the Royal Air Force from 1950 to 1952, earned a PhD from Birmingham University in 1955, and later joined the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston before moving to Culham Laboratory, where he became chief physicist.
John Bryan Taylor, 97, British physicist.