Fred Taylor is Halley Professor of Physics Emeritus at Oxford University, UK, a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and a member of the Oxford Physics Department where he was head of Atmospheric, Oceanic & Planetary Physics for 21 years. He was educated at the University of Liverpool, and Oxford University. After graduating he spent ten years in the USA, in the Space Science Division of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He was Principle Investigator on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter in 1979, making the first systematic study of meteorology of the atmosphere of Venus. He is currently participating in a number of planetary and Earth Observation space experiments, as well as contribution to theoretical work and modelling on problems in atmospheric and oceanic physics, such as ozone depletion, the greenhouse effect and climate change.