Taylor is a physicist who, at 14 became the youngest person in history to produce nuclear fusion, building a reactor capable of smashing atoms in a plasma core at over 500 million degrees Fahrenheit (40 times hotter than the core of the sun) in his parents’ garage. He has gone on to develop many award-winning technologies, and has lead research in fields including energy production and storage, robotics, materials science, and biology. Taylor directs several interdisciplinary laboratories for fundamental and applied research in nuclear science, and is the founder of Prometheus Industries, a company focused on science driven R&D and commercializing advanced technologies. He is also involved in efforts related to defence, space exploration, and science-driven public policy both in the United States and around the globe, and works to infuse a curiosity for science, technology and the natural world into popular culture, through outlets such as TED and NOVA. Taylor is a correspondent on the HBO documentary series VICE where he has hosted documentaries on topics such as dark matter, the search for extra-terrestrial life, and conflict in outer space. Taylor is the subject of the biography The Boy Who Played with Fusion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015), written by author Tom Clynes, and an untitled biopic in development at 20th Century Fox, to be directed by Jeff Nichols. Taylor is a member of The NewNow, a group of rising leaders committed to achieving change in their communities and beyond.