The Taylor Fellowship aids recruitment and retention of outstanding graduate students and can provide dissertation support. Graduate students conducting research in virology receive first preference.  Undergraduate microbiology majors, who preferably are performing research in virology, may also apply for scholarships from this fund and receive second preference.

The endowed fellowship was created in 2000 by alumnus Lawrence Blatt to honor his former teacher and mentor, Professor Milton W. Taylor. In addition to studying under Taylor as an undergraduate, Blatt, now the Vice President of Biopharmacology Research for InterMune, also began collaborating with Taylor on scientific projects in the early 1990s. They began researching the synergistic effects of interferon on virus replication and the study of gene expression using microarray technology.

Taylor has researched and taught molecular biology at IU for since 1967.  During this time, he has worked in the areas of somatic cell genetics, viral replication, and the effects of interferon on viral replication and the immune system. Since joining IU, Taylor has received uninterrupted funding from the NIH and grants from the American Cancer Society, the Damon Runyon Foundation, and industrial groups such as Amgen, Schering Plough, and Eli Lilly.  Taylor currently runs one of four ancillary labs selected to participate in a clinical trial funded by NIH to investigate the effects of interferon on hepatitis C patients.

Taylor is a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology, an honor reserved for particularly accomplished microbiologists, a fellow of the Indiana Molecular Biology Institute, and a former office holder in the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research.