Lauriston S. Taylor (1 June 1902 – 26 November 2004) was an American physicist known for his work in the field of radiation protection and measurement.

Career

He established standards for X-ray radiation exposure for the first time in the 1920s, which eventually led to a group of government organizations that set the standards over the next 50 years. Taylor remained active in debates about radiation exposure into his 80s, often advocating the viewpoint that small doses of radiation were not important.

Accolades

He served as president of the

Health Physics Society The Health Physics Society (HPS) is a nonprofit scientific professional organization whose mission is excellence in the science and practice of radiation safety. It is based in the United States and the specific purposes of the society's activit ...

(HPS) from 1958 to 1959. He was a recipient of the

Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

, and the Presidential

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

(then the highest military award that could be given to a civilian).

Vignettes of early radiation workers

In 1977 the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiated a series of 25 recorded interviews with early radiation workers to provide an historical overview of their research and discoveries primarily in the fields of

medical physics Medical physics deals with the application of the concepts and methods of physics to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases with a specific goal of improving human health and well-being. Since 2008, medical physics has been incl ...

, radiation, and

radiobiology Radiobiology (also known as radiation biology, and uncommonly as actinobiology) is a field of clinical and basic medical sciences that involves the study of the action of ionizing radiation on living things, especially health effects of radiation. ...

. Lauriston S. Taylor moderated the series and also was an interview subject.

Interview subjects

* Howard Andrews * Walter Binks, physicist and specialist in radiology *

Carl Bjorn Braestrup Carl Bjorn Braestrup (April 13, 1897 – August 8, 1982) was an American physicist, engineer and inventor who specialised in radiation safety at the New York Department of Hospitals and Columbia University. Early life Carl Bjorn Braestrup ...

* Austin M. Brues, physician

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

* Robley Evans * George Henny * Paul Henshaw, physician

Norman Hilberry Norman Hilberry (March 11, 1899 – March 28, 1986) was an American physicist, best known as the director of the Argonne National Laboratory from 1956 to 1961. In December 1942 he was the man who stood ready with an axe to cut the scram line duri ...

, "Mr. Scram", axe man at the first

chain reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that sys ...

for

Chicago Pile 1 Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the world's first artificial nuclear reactor. On 2 December 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1, during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi. The secret development of ...

, Director of Argonne National Laboratory, 1957-1961 * Lillian E. Jacobson,

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, radiotherapy department and laboratory division of Montefiore Hospital, New York * Harold E. Johns, Canadian

medical physicist A medical physicist is a health professional with specialist education and training in the concepts and techniques of applying physics in medicine and competent to practice independently in one or more of the subfields (specialties) of medical phys ...

* George Laurence, Canadian nuclear physicist *

John H. Lawrence John Hundale Lawrence (January 7, 1904 – September 7, 1991) was an American physicist and physician best known for pioneering the field of nuclear medicine. Background John Hundale Lawrence was born in Canton, South Dakota. His parents, Carl Gu ...

, American physicist and physician,

nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is " radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emi ...

pioneer * Herbert M. Parker, English born, American pioneer in medical

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radi ...

and

radiation safety Radiation protection, also known as radiological protection, is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The protection of people from harmful effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, and the means for achieving this". Expos ...

* Sir Edward Eric Pochin, British physician, specialist in ionizing radiation safety *

Edith Quimby Edith Hinkley Quimby (July 10, 1891 – October 11, 1982) was an American medical researcher and physicist, best known as one of the founders of nuclear medicine. Her work involved developing diagnostic and therapeutic applications of X-rays. One ...

, American

medical researcher Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as experimental medicine, encompasses a wide array of research, extending from "basic research" (also called ''bench science'' or ''bench research''), – involving fundamental scientif ...

and

, pioneer in

* John E. Rose, health physicist * Roberts Rugh, department of radiology, Columbia University, directed research on the effects of ionizing radiation, served as senior medical consultant * Eric E. Smith, British specialist in the field of ionizing radiation * James Newell Stannard, radiobiologist,

pharmacologist Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemic ...

and physiologist at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

* Lauriston Sale "Laurie" Taylor * E. Dale Trout,

radiologist Radiology ( ) is the medical discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiat ...

, professor emeritus of radiological physics,

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

John G. Trump John George Trump (August 21, 1907 – February 21, 1985) was an American electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1936 to 1973, he was a recipient of the National Medal of Scie ...

, American

high-voltage High voltage electricity refers to electrical potential large enough to cause injury or damage. In certain industries, ''high voltage'' refers to voltage above a certain threshold. Equipment and Electrical conductor, conductors that carry high ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

and

* John Austin "Jack" Victoreen, self-taught radio engineer, pioneer of radiation detection instruments * Samuel Reid Warren Jr., professor in electrical engineering at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and radiation physicist * Shields Warren, pioneer

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in t ...

and expert in medical radiation * Marvin Martin Dixon Williams, pioneer in

, head of

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the Mayo Clinic * Harold O. Wyckoff, pioneer in measurement of radiation and radiation protection standards

References

External links

Archival collections

Lauriston Sale Taylor Papers, 1904-1999 (inclusive), 1928-1989 (bulk). H MS c334. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.

Lauriston Sale Taylor publications, 1928-1989, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Lauriston S. 1902 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American physicists Health physicists Cornell University alumni Radiation health effects researchers Radiation protection Recipients of the Medal of Freedom American centenarians Men centenarians Health Physics Society Bell Labs National Institute of Standards and Technology Fellows of the American Physical Society