He would move on to receive a PhD from Lehigh University, perform pre-doctoral experimental petrology research at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and finally a Fulbright Fellowship at the Max-Planck-Institüt für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany.
[1] In December 1972, Taylor was offered to be in the “back room”[1] of Johnson Space Center during the Apollo 17 mission where he had the opportunity to directly advise astronauts on their extravehicular activities on the Moon.
Subsequently, Taylor became very close friends with Harrison Schmitt, the last man to step on the lunar surface and the sole geologist to ever reach the Moon.
The two would collaborate throughout their careers with Schmitt playing an influential role in helping Taylor develop the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UT.
At the beginning of his senior year in high school, Taylor was involved in an automobile accident resulting in many broken bones and compound fractures including his pelvis and femur leaving him hospitalized for around 10 months.
During this period, Taylor took on many miscellaneous occupations that included: driller, rocker shovel loader, powder-monkey, and geologist in mines in Ontario, Canada.