William Randolph Taylor (December 21, 1895 – November 11, 1990) was an American botanist known as an expert in phycology.
His summers were primarily spent at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
[1] His field work involved collecting trips to the Dry Tortugas, British Columbia, the Caribbean, Pacific Mexico, Central and South America, and the Galapagos Islands.
His lab research dealt with cytogenetics and cytotaxonomy of seaweeds, specializing in the biology and classification of freshwater and marine algae.
[1] In 1946, he was brought on as a senior biologist for Operation Crossroads by the United States Navy to conduct botanical surveys of the Marshall Islands before and after the testing of atomic bombs.