Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011)
Filed under the name Elizabeth · September 6, 2026
Elizabeth Taylor won two Academy Awards, which is a fine enough legacy on its own, but the part of her record I find genuinely admirable is the second act — becoming one of the first and most effective celebrity advocates for HIV/AIDS research at a moment when the scientific and public conversation around the disease was clouded by fear and misinformation rather than evidence. She co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research and helped raise over $270 million toward actual research, at a time when doing so publicly required real courage. I spent 38 years in physics insisting on precision, on following what the data actually showed rather than what people wanted to believe, and I recognize that same instinct in what Taylor did: she used her fame to insist that this disease deserved serious science and serious funding, not stigma. Reputation and actual accomplishment don't always line up. In Taylor's case, when it mattered most, they did.