Professor Michael Taylor is an internationally renowned climate physicist who has served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has pioneered the use of regional climate models, built Caribbean Climate databases and developed tools to help us better understand and address climate change and its likely impacts into the future. This knowledge is critical for the region being comprised of tropical island states at risk from sea-level rise and tropical cyclones in particular. He earned both his B.Sc. (1st Class Hons.) and M.Sc. in Physics from The University of the West Indies and was awarded his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in environmental physics. He joined The UWI as a Lecturer in the Department of Physics in 1999 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2008 and Head of Department in 2009. In 2013 he was elevated to the rank of Professor and in 2014 he was appointed Deputy Dean and in 2018, Dean for the Faculty of Science and Technology. He became the Director of the Climate Studies Group Mona in 2007 and is currently the Co-Director with Professor Tannecia Stephenson. He is a climate resilience advocate and has served on Jamaica's Climate Change Advisory Board. The Fi Wi Science Initiative is his brainchild - aimed at ensuring that youth can find local scientists to inspire their careers. He has received many notable awards, national and international in recognition for his work including Jamaica’s Silver Musgrave Medal for Science in 2013, the Young Scientist Awards from the Scientific Research Council in 2005 and the Caribbean Academy of Sciences in 2008. He was made a Fellow of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences in 2018 and awarded the Anthony A. Sabga Award of Caribbean Excellence in 2019. In 2024, he was made a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences.