Travis S. Taylor

Travis Shane Taylor (born July 24, 1968) is an American scientist, engineer, science fiction writer, and the star of National Geographic Channel's Rocket City Rednecks which aired 2011–2013. Taylor has written numerous technical papers, science fiction novels, and two textbooks. He has appeared in television documentaries including NGC's When Aliens Attack and is one of the primary investigative scientists on History Channel's The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.

Travis Shane Taylor was born on July 24, 1968, in Decatur, Alabama, in North Alabama. His father, Charles Taylor, worked as a machinist at Wyle Laboratories, which subcontracted for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the 1960s. As a boy, Taylor read science fiction and dismantled household electronics. While in high school, Taylor's family moved to Somerville, near Huntsville. At 17 years old, with the help of his neighbor, he built a radio telescope that won the state science fair. This led the Army to offer Taylor a job working at Redstone Arsenal on directed energy weapons systems directly out of high school as well as a scholarship.

Taylor earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Auburn University in 1991, before going on to study at University of Alabama, Huntsville where he earned a MS in physics in 1994, a PhD in optical science and engineering in 1999, and a MSE in mechanical and aerospace engineering in 2001. He then completed a MS in astronomy in 2004 at the University of Western Sydney before earning a second PhD from University of Alabama, Huntsville in aerospace engineering in 2012.

By 2006, Taylor had worked on various programs for the United States Department of Defense and NASA for over sixteen years. He has researched several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, high-energy lasers, and next generation space launch concepts. Taylor has also been involved with Human intelligence (HUMINT), Imagery intelligence (IMINT), Signals intelligence (SIGINT) and Measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) concept studies.

Taylor was the chief scientist on the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF). He is also a Principal Research Scientist at Radiance Technologies.

According to Taylor, after he expressed his dissatisfaction with space opera and the comparative dearth of recent hard science fiction, he was challenged by his wife to write his first book, and studied Robert A. Heinlein's works for stylistic influence. His first novel, Warp Speed, was published in 2004. By 2020, Taylor had published 14 science fiction novels.

Taylor and his wife have two children, and they live in Somerville, Alabama.

Taylor first appeared in episodes of The Universe and Life After People for the History Channel in 2010, after his name came up in a search regarding space warfare. Taylor was then on National Geographic Channel's When Aliens Attack in 2011.