Still Questioning Authority: An Interview with Jean Taylor

Jean E. Taylor is a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University, Vice-President of the American Mathematical Society, and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She finished first in her class at Mount Holyoke College. Taylor retains the questioning manner that distinguished her as a schoolgirl, as evidenced by her fondness for the bumper sticker "QUESTION AUTHORITY!" Over the past quarter century she has studied minimal surfaces, the closed surfaces enclosing the least volume or those with a given space curve as boundary that have minimal surface area. In the early days of her career as a mathematician Professor Taylor tested her theoretical models of minimal surfaces by dunking loops of wire into her kitchen sink of soapy wa? ter. Later she turned to high technology, especially computer graphics software, to model bubbles. Today, she has moved from soap bubbles to crystals, which conform to more complicated rules about minimal surfaces. Taylor's daughter calls mathematics "the family business." Two of Taylor's three collaborators on a recent research project are in the family. With her husband Frederick J. Almgren of Princeton, her stepson Robert F. Almgren of the University of Chicago, and Andrew R. Roosen of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Taylor is trying to model the growth of snowflakes and other crystals on a computer. Her daughter Karen Almgren, a senior at Princeton High School, gave a talk at the spring 1996 meeting of the New Jersey Section of the Mathematical Association of America: "Calculating the Capillary Forces Exerted by a Drop Between Two Cylinders." It seems the family business is expanding. Taylor loves the mountains. An accomplished climber, she was invited to join the Annapurna expedition. Which of her many achievements most pleases her? "The day I climbed both Cathedral Spires and Church Tower." Taylor was interviewed in her office in the summer of 1994.