Taylor, Richard Edward, 1930–2018, Canadian experimental physicist. He was associated primarily with Stanford, where he received his doctorate (1962) and helped build and then worked—first (1962) as an experimental physicist, then (1968) as a professor and (2003) emeritus professor—at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1990 Taylor shared Nobel Prize in Physics with Jerome Friedman and Henry W. Kendall for a series of experiments (1967–73) that showed that protons and neutrons are not fundamental particles of matter but are composed of smaller particles known as quarks. This evidence allowed scientists to develop the Standard Model theory of matter, which states that all matter is made up of combinations of six quarks and six leptons that interact with the various types of force particles (see elementary particles). Among his later experiments was one that helped confirm (1978) the electroweak theory.
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