Marika Taylor

Marika Taylor
Taylor in 2009
Born
Marika Maxine Taylor

1974 (age 49–50)
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge (BA, PhD)
AwardsMayhew Prize (1995)
Scientific career
FieldsHolography
Cosmology
Theoretical physics
InstitutionsUniversity of Birmingham
University of Southampton
University of Amsterdam
ThesisProblems in M theory (1998)
Doctoral advisorStephen Hawking[1]
Websitewww.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/eps/taylor-marika.aspx

Marika Maxine Taylor (born 1974) is a Professor of Theoretical Physics, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Head of College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Birmingham. [2] She started this role in September 2023 after being Head of School for Mathematics at the University of Southampton.

Early life and education

Taylor was inspired to study physics after reading A Brief History of Time whilst an GCE Advanced Level student.[3] She studied Physics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, where she heard a series of lectures by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose about cosmology.[3] This inspired her to choose courses on cosmology and black holes for her final year of study. She stayed at Cambridge, where she completed Part III of the Mathematical Tripos.[4] In 1995 she won the Mayhew Prize, awarded annually by the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, to the student showing the greatest distinction in Applied Mathematics. Her doctoral thesis Problems in M-theory, was supervised by Stephen Hawking which she completed in 1998.[1][5][6][3] She continued to publish with Hawking after leaving Cambridge.[7][8][9]

Research and career

Taylor's research is focussed on string theory, quantum field theory and gravitational physics.[10] She uses the holographic principle to investigate the physical properties of black holes and condensed matter systems.[10] The holographic principle allows Taylor to relate gravitational theories to theories without gravity, in one dimension lower.[11] The holographic principle suggests that Einstein's picture of black holes isn't entirely correct – instead of matter getting sucked into the event horizon of a black hole, it remains as a hologram.[12]

She was a postdoctoral fellow in Cambridge and Utrecht.[13][14] She joined the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Amsterdam in 2004.[15][10]

In 2012 Taylor joined the University of Southampton, where as of 2018 she is a professor.[16][17] She was involved with The String Universe, a 2017 multi-institution COST Action grant exploring cosmology and string theory.[18][19][20] As part of the initiative, Taylor arranged a series of events related to diversity in string theory.[21][22]

Taylor has contributed to The Conversation.[23][24] She regularly gives invited talks, seminars and popular science discussions relating to string theory, symmetries and entanglement.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][excessive citations] She contributed to the New Scientist collection Where the Universe Came From: How Einstein's relativity unlocks the past, present and future of the cosmos.[34]

On 6 June 2023, she has been appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Engineering & Physical Sciences of the University of Birmingham.[35]

Awards and honours

Taylor is a former member of the Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[36] In 2008 she won the Minerva Prize, awarded annually by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research for her paper Fuzzball solutions for black holes and D1-brane-D5-brane microstates.[37][38][39][40] In the paper she described the microscopic description of the physics of black holes.[41] She explored the possibility of Non-relativistic holography.[42]

References

  1. ^ a b Marika Taylor at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ^ "University of Birmingham appoints Head of College of Engineering & Physical Sciences". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Taylor, Marika (2018). "I was a student of Stephen Hawking's – here's what he taught me". The Conversation. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Ada Lovelace Day 2015: Celebrating Prof. Marika Taylor and Diversity in STEM". femmesavecfaim.blogspot.co.uk. 21 October 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  5. ^ Taylor-Robinson, Marika Maxine (1998). Problems in M theory. lib.cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 894603647. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.625075.
  6. ^ Sample, Ian (14 March 2018). "Stephen Hawking, science's brightest star, dies aged 76". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  7. ^ "Publications". Stephen Hawking. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  8. ^ Taylor-Robinson, Marika (2000). "More on counterterms in the gravitational action and anomalies". arXiv:hep-th/0002125.
  9. ^ Taylor-Robinson, Marika (2000). "Holography for degenerate boundaries". arXiv:hep-th/0001177.
  10. ^ a b c Amsterdam, Universiteit van. "Focus on research: theoretical physicist Marika Taylor – University of Amsterdam". uva.nl. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  11. ^ "Marika Taylor". The Conversation. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  12. ^ Rincon, Paul (2015). "Hawking: Black holes store information". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  13. ^ Taylor, Marika (2011). "Recent progress in holography" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  14. ^ "Professor Marika Taylor | Mathematical Sciences | University of Southampton". southampton.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  15. ^ "Black Holes and Holography —". dejongeakademie.nl. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Marika Taylor | www.hep.phys.soton.ac.uk". hep.phys.soton.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  17. ^ "Marika Maxine Taylor". UKRI Gateway. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  18. ^ "People | The String Theory Universe". weizmann.ac.il. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  19. ^ "Dr. TAYLOR Marika | The String Theory Universe". weizmann.ac.il. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  20. ^ "THE STRING THEORY UNIVERSE – 22nd European string workshop and Final COST MP1210 Conference (20-24 February 2017) · Indico". Indico. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  21. ^ "Women – strings". web.infn.it. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  22. ^ "String Theory and Gender · Indico". Indico. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  23. ^ Taylor, Marika (2015). "Don't fear falling into a black hole – you may live on as a hologram". The Conversation. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  24. ^ Bligh, Annabel. "Anthill 1: About time". The Conversation. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  25. ^ "Holographic Cosmology | Perimeter Institute". perimeterinstitute.ca (in French). Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  26. ^ "Marika Taylor (Southampton)". Centre for Mathematical Sciences. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  27. ^ Southampton UG Maths Seminars (14 October 2016), Symmetries of Black Holes, retrieved 8 April 2018
  28. ^ efrain vega (26 December 2017), Entanglement, Chaos and Holography 3/3 (Marika Taylor), retrieved 8 April 2018
  29. ^ "2016 Archive | Winchester Café Scientifique". wincafesci.org.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  30. ^ "Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day – Ada Lovelace Day". findingada.com. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  31. ^ "Black Holes and Quantum Information by Prof Marika Taylor". IEEE – UK and Ireland Section. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  32. ^ "String Theory in Greater Tokyo 6A (16 January 2018) · Kavli IPMU Indico System (Indico)". Kavli IPMU Indico System (Indico). Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  33. ^ "Marika Taylor: Thinking in different dimensions | Drupal". fastfacts.nl. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  34. ^ Scientist, New (9 March 2017). Where the universe came from : how Einstein's relativity unlocks the past, present and future of the cosmos. London. ISBN 978-1-4736-2960-8. OCLC 982382741.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  35. ^ "University of Birmingham appoints Head of College of Engineering & Physical Sciences". birmingham.ac.uk/. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  36. ^ "Taylor, Prof. dr. M. (Marika) — KNAW". knaw.nl. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  37. ^ "Minerva-Prijs 2008 voor dr. Marika Taylor – NWO-I". NWO-I (in Dutch). 14 January 2008. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  38. ^ "Minerva Prize – NWO-I". NWO-I. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  39. ^ "Prof. Dr. M.M. Taylor – AcademiaNet". academia-net.org. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  40. ^ "Taylor, Prof. dr. M. (Marika) —". dejongeakademie.nl. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  41. ^ Skenderis, Kostas; Taylor, Marika (2007). "Fuzzball solutions for black holes and D1-brane-D5-brane microstates". Physical Review Letters. 98 (7): 071601. arXiv:hep-th/0609154. Bibcode:2007PhRvL..98g1601S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.071601. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 17359016. S2CID 18751159.
  42. ^ Taylor, Marika (2008). "Non-relativistic holography". arXiv:0812.0530 [hep-th].