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Neil deGrasse Tyson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neil deGrasse Tyson (/?ni?l d??r?s ?ta?s?n/? born October 5,
1958) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and
science communicator. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P.
Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for
Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the
American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the
Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research
associate in the department since 2003.
Born and raised in New York City, Tyson became interested in
astronomy at the age of nine after a visit to the Hayden
Planetarium. After graduating from the Bronx High School of
Science, where he was editor?in?chief of the Physical Science
Journal, he completed a bachelor's degree in physics at Harvard
University in 1980. After receiving a master's degree in
astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983, he
earned his master's (1989) and doctorate (1991) in astrophysics
at Columbia University. For the next three years, he was a
postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. In 1994,
he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist and the
Princeton faculty as a visiting research scientist and lecturer. In
1996, he became director of the planetarium and oversaw its
$210?million reconstruction project, which was completed in
2000.
From 1995 to 2005, Tyson wrote monthly essays in the
"Universe" column for Natural History magazine, some of
which were published in his book Death by Black Hole (2007).
During the same period, he wrote a monthly column in Star
Date magazine, answering questions about the universe under
the pen name "Merlin". Material from the column appeared in
his books Merlin's Tour of the Universe (1998) and Just Visiting
This Planet (1998). Tyson served on a 2001 government
commission on the future of the U.S. aerospace industry, and on
the 2004 Moon, Mars and Beyond commission. He was awarded
the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in the same year.
From 2006 to 2011, he hosted the television show NOVA
ScienceNow on PBS. Since 2009, Tyson hosted the weekly
podcast StarTalk. A spin?off, also called StarTalk, began airing
on National Geographic in 2015. In 2014, he hosted the
television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a successor to
Carl Sagan's 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.[1] The
U.S. National Academy of Sciences awarded Tyson the Public
Welfare Medal in 2015 for his "extraordinary role in exciting the
public about the wonders of science".[2]
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Tyson hosting the 40th anniversary celebration of
Apollo 11 at the National Air and Space Museum
in Washington, July 2009
Born
October 5, 1958
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Fields
Astrophysics, physical cosmology,
science communication
Institutions University of Maryland, College Park
Princeton University
American Museum of Natural History
Alma mater Harvard College (A.B.)
University of Texas at Austin (M.A.)
Columbia University (M.Phil., Ph.D.)
Thesis
A study of the abundance distributions
along the minor axis of the Galactic
bulge (
992PhDT.........1T) (1991)
Doctoral
advisor
R. Michael Rich
Influences
Isaac Newton, Carl Sagan, Richard
Feynman, Albert Einstein
Notable
awards
NASA Distinguished Public Service
Medal (2004)
Klopsteg Memorial Award (2007)
Contents
1 Early life
2 Career
3 Views
3.1 Spirituality
3.2 Race and social justice
3.3 NASA
3.4 Animal rights
4 Media appearances
4.1 Refuting "Flat Earth"
belief
5 Personal life
6 Recognition
6.1 Awards
6.2 Honors
6.3 Honorary doctorates
7 Works
7.1 Books
7.2 Research publications
8 Filmography
9 Discography
10 References
11 External links
Public Welfare Medal (2015)
Spouse
Alice Young (m. 1988)
Children
2
Signature
Early life
Tyson was born as the second of three children in Manhattan, New York, into a family living in the Bronx.[3] His
mother, Sunchita Maria (ne Feliciano) Tyson, was a gerontologist for the U.S. Department of Health, Education
and Welfare, and is of Puerto Rican descent.[4] His African?American father, Cyril deGrasse Tyson (1927C2016),
was a sociologist, human resource commissioner for New York City mayor John Lindsay, and the first Director of
Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited.[5][6] Tyson has two siblings: Stephen Joseph Tyson and Lynn Antipas
Tyson.[7] Tyson's middle name, deGrasse, is from the maiden name of his paternal grandmother, who was born as
Altima de Grasse in the British West Indies island of Nevis.[8]
Tyson grew up in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, and later in Riverdale.[9] From kindergarten
throughout high school, Tyson attended public schools in the Bronx: P.S. 36, P.S. 81, the Riverdale Kingsbridge
Academy, and The Bronx High School of Science (1972C76) where he was captain of the wrestling team and
editor?in?chief of the Physical Science Journal.[10][11] His interest in astronomy began at the age of nine after
visiting the sky theater of the Hayden Planetarium.[12] He recalled that "so strong was that imprint [of the night
sky] that I'm certain that I had no choice in the matter, that in fact, the universe called me."[13] During high school,
Tyson attended astronomy courses offered by the Hayden Planetarium, which he called "the most formative
period" of his life. He credited Dr. Mark Chartrand III, director of the planetarium at the time, as his "first
intellectual role model" and his enthusiastic teaching style mixed with humor inspired Tyson to communicate the
universe to others the way he did.[14]
Tyson obsessively studied astronomy in his teens, and eventually even gained some fame in the astronomy
community by giving lectures on the subject at the age of fifteen.[15] Astronomer Carl Sagan, who was a faculty
member at Cornell University, tried to recruit Tyson to Cornell for undergraduate studies.[6] In his book, The Sky Is
Not the Limit, Tyson wrote:
My letter of application had been dripping with an interest in the universe. The admission office,
unbeknownst to me, had forwarded my application to Carl Sagan's attention. Within weeks, I received
a personal letter...[16]
Tyson revisited this moment on his first episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Pulling out a 1975 calendar
belonging to the famous astronomer, he found the day Sagan invited the 17?year?old to spend a day in Ithaca.
Sagan had offered to put him up for the night if his bus back to the Bronx did not come. Tyson said, "I already
knew I wanted to become a scientist. But that afternoon, I learned from Carl the kind of person I wanted to
become."[17][18]
Tyson chose to attend Harvard where he majored in physics and lived in Currier House. He was a member of the
crew team during his freshman year, but returned to wrestling, lettering in his senior year. He was also active in
dance, in styles including jazz, ballet, Afro?Caribbean, and Latin Ballroom.[19]
Tyson earned an AB degree in physics at Harvard College in 1980 and began his graduate work at the University
of Texas at Austin, from which he received an MA degree in astronomy in 1983. Tyson joined its dance, rowing,
and wrestling teams. By his own account, he did not spend as much time in the research lab as he should have. His
professors encouraged him to consider alternate careers and the committee for his doctoral dissertation was
dissolved, ending his pursuit of a doctorate from the University of Texas.[20]
Tyson was a lecturer in astronomy at the University of Maryland from 1986 to 1987[21] and in 1988, he was
accepted into the astronomy graduate program at Columbia University, where he earned an MPhil degree in
astrophysics in 1989, and a PhD degree in astrophysics in 1991[22] under the supervision of Professor R. Michael
Rich. Rich obtained funding to support Tyson's doctoral research from NASA and the ARCS foundation[23]
enabling Tyson to attend international meetings in Italy, Switzerland, Chile, and South Africa[21] and to hire
students to help him with data reduction.[24] In the course of his thesis work, he observed using the 0.91 m
telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter?American Observatory in Chile, where he obtained images for the Caln/Tololo
Supernova Survey[25][26][27] helping to further their work in establishing Type Ia supernovae as standard candles.
These papers comprised part of the discovery papers of the use of Type Ia supernovae to measure distances, which
led to the improved measurement of the Hubble constant[28] and discovery of dark energy in 1998.[29][30] He was
18th author on a paper with Brian Schmidt, a future winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, in the study of the
measurement of distances to Type II Supernovae and the Hubble constant.[31]
During his thesis work at Columbia University, Tyson became acquainted with Professor David Spergel at
Princeton University, who visited Columbia University in the course of collaborating with his thesis advisor on the
Galactic bulge[32][33][34] typically found in spiral galaxies.
Career
Tyson's research has focused on observations in cosmology, stellar evolution, galactic astronomy, bulges, and
stellar formation. He has held numerous positions at institutions including the University of Maryland, Princeton
University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Hayden Planetarium.
In 1994, Tyson joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist while he
was a research affiliate in Princeton University. He became acting director
of the planetarium in June 1995 and was appointed director in 1996.[35] As
director, he oversaw the planetarium's $210 million reconstruction project,
which was completed in 2000. Upon being asked for his thoughts on
becoming director, Tyson said "when I was a kid... there were scientists and
educators on the staff at the Hayden Planetarium... who invested their time
and energy in my enlightenment... and I've never forgotten that. And to end
up back there as its director, I feel this deep sense of duty, that I serve in the
same capacity for people who come through the facility today, that others
served for me".[36]
Tyson with students at the 2007
American Astronomical Society
conference
Tyson has written a number of popular books on astronomy. In 1995, he
began to write the "Universe" column for Natural History magazine. In a
column he authored for a special edition of the magazine, called "City of Stars", in 2002, Tyson popularized the
term "Manhattanhenge" to describe the two days annually on which the evening sun aligns with the street grid in
Manhattan, making the sunset visible along unobstructed side streets. He had coined the term in 1996, inspired by
how the phenomenon recalls the sun's solstice alignment with the Stonehenge monument in England.[37] Tyson's
column also influenced his work as a professor with The Great Courses.[38]
In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Tyson to serve on the Commission on the Future of the United
States Aerospace Industry and in 2004 to serve on the President's Commission on Implementation of United States
Space Exploration Policy, the latter better known as the "Moon, Mars, and Beyond" commission. Soon afterward,
he was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by NASA.[39]
In 2004, Tyson hosted the four?part Origins miniseries of the PBS Nova
series,[40] and, with Donald Goldsmith, co?authored the companion volume
for this series, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years Of Cosmic Evolution.[41] He
again collaborated with Goldsmith as the narrator on the documentary 400
Years of the Telescope, which premiered on PBS in April 2009.[42]
As director of the Hayden Planetarium, Tyson bucked traditional thinking
in order to keep Pluto from being referred to as the ninth planet in exhibits
at the center. Tyson has explained that he wanted to look at commonalities
between objects, grouping the terrestrial planets together, the gas giants
Tyson in December 2011 at a
together, and Pluto with like objects, and to get away from simply counting
conference marking 1,000 days after
the planets. He has stated on The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, and BBC
the launch of the spacecraft Kepler
Horizon that this decision has resulted in large amounts of hate mail, much
of it from children.[43] In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
confirmed this assessment by changing Pluto to the dwarf planet classification.
Tyson recounted the heated online debate on the Cambridge Conference Network (CCNet), a "widely read, UK?
based Internet chat group", following Benny Peiser's renewed call for reclassification of Pluto's status.[44] Peiser's
entry, in which he posted articles from the AP and The Boston Globe, spawned from The New York Times's article
entitled "Pluto's Not a Planet? Only in New York".[45][46]
Tyson has been vice president, president, and chairman of the board of the Planetary Society. He was also the host
of the PBS program Nova ScienceNow until 2011.[47] He attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief:
Science, Religion, Reason and Survival symposium in November 2006. In 2007, Tyson was chosen to be a regular
on The History Channel's popular series The Universe.
In May 2009, Tyson launched a one?hour radio talk show called StarTalk,
which he co?hosted with comedian Lynne Koplitz. The show was
syndicated on Sunday afternoons on KTLK AM in Los Angeles and WHFS
in Washington DC. The show lasted for thirteen weeks, but was resurrected
in December 2010 and then, co?hosted with comedians Chuck Nice and
Leighann Lord instead of Koplitz. Guests range from colleagues in science
to celebrities such as GZA, Wil Wheaton, Sarah Silverman, and Bill Maher.
The show is available via the Internet through a live stream or in the form
of a podcast.[48]
In April 2011, Tyson was the keynote speaker at the 93rd International
Convention of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society of the
Two?year School. He and James Randi delivered a lecture entitled
Skepticism, which related directly with the convention's theme of The
Democratization of Information: Power, Peril, and Promise.[49]
Tyson promoting the Cosmos TV
series in Australia for National
Geographic, 2014
In 2012, Tyson announced that he would appear in a YouTube series based on his radio show StarTalk. A premiere
date for the show has not been announced, but it will be distributed on the Nerdist YouTube Channel.[50] On
February 28, 2014, Tyson was a celebrity guest at the White House Student Film Festival.[51] In 2014, he helped
revive Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage television series, presenting Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey on
both FOX and the National Geographic Channel. Thirteen episodes were aired in the first season, and Tyson has
stated that if a second season were produced, he would pass the role of host to someone else in the science
world.[52][53] On April 20, 2015, he began hosting a late?night talk show entitled Star Talk on the National
Geographic Channel, where Tyson interviews pop culture celebrities and asks them about their life experiences
with science.[54]
Views
Spirituality
Tyson has written and broadcast extensively
about his views of science, spirituality, and
[A] most important feature is the analysis of the information that comes
the spirituality of science, including the
your way. And that's what I don't see enough of in this world. There's a
level of gullibility that leaves people susceptible to being taken advantage
essays "The Perimeter of Ignorance"[57] and
of. I see science literacy as kind of a vaccine against charlatans who
"Holy Wars",[58] both appearing in Natural
would try to exploit your ignorance.
History magazine and the 2006 Beyond
Neil deGrasse Tyson, from a transcript of an interview by Roger
Belief workshop. In an interview with
Bingham on The Science Network[55][56]
comedian Paul Mecurio, Tyson offered his
definition of spirituality: "For me, when I
say spiritual, Im referring to a feeling you would have that connects you to the universe in a way that it may defy
simple vocabulary. We think about the universe as an intellectual playground, which it surely is, but the moment
you learn something that touches an emotion rather than just something intellectual, I would call that a spiritual
encounter with the universe."[59] Tyson has argued that many great historical scientists' belief in intelligent design
limited their scientific inquiries, to the detriment of the advance of scientific knowledge.[58][60]
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