Photo: Taylor Wilson / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Taylor Wilson is genuinely one of those people who makes you question what you were doing with your own teenage years, because while most of us were struggling through high school chemistry, this guy from Texarkana was quietly building a working nuclear fusion reactor in his garage at 14. That's not a metaphor — he actually achieved controlled nuclear fusion in 2008, making him one of the youngest people ever to do it. He went on to win the Thiel Fellowship, gave TED talks that left physicists nodding along, and has spent his career pushing for compact reactor technology and better radiation detection tools for national security. What gets me is that this never feels like a stunt — Wilson is the real deal, a kid who fell genuinely in love with nuclear physics and just refused to wait for a PhD before doing something remarkable with it.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Taylor Wilson
- Name (Japanese)
- テイラー・ウィルソン
- Reading
- ていらー・うぃるそん
- Born
- May 7, 1994 (age 32)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Dog
- Origin
- Texarkana, United States
- Occupation
- engineer / nuclear physicist / child prodigy
2. Background
- University
- University of Nevada, Reno
Awards & achievements
- Thiel Fellowship
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Taylor Wilson born?
Born May 7, 1994 (age 32).
Where is Taylor Wilson from?
Taylor Wilson is from Texarkana, United States.
What does Taylor Wilson do?
Taylor Wilson works as engineer, nuclear physicist, child prodigy.
Engineer — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.