Neil deGrasse Tyson

Background

Neil deGrasse Tyson was born in Manhattan, on October 5, 1958, as one of three children, to an African American father, Cyril deGrasse Tyson, and a Puerto Rican mother, Sunchita Marie Tyson. His mother was a gerontologist, while his father was the inaugural director of Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited. He attended many New York City public schools before enrolling at the Bronx High School of Science.

As a young athlete, Tyson commanded the wrestling squad. And being an intelligent and curious man, he was captivated by astronomy and served as editor-in-chief of his school’s “Physical Science Journal.” In 1976, he graduated from high school. His interest in astronomy grew to obsession, and he learned everything he could about the subject. In 1980, he graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in physics. During his undergraduate years, he pursued his passion for wrestling and was also a brilliant dancer. In 1983, he completed his academic studies at the University of Texas, in Austin, and earned a master of arts in astronomy.

In 1986, he was appointed as an astronomy instructor at the University of Maryland. He remained there until 1987. The next year, he was accepted to Columbia University. In 1991, he was awarded a doctorate in astrophysics, following two years of intensive research. Professor R. Michael Rich, his advisor at Columbia University, assisted him in obtaining funding for his doctorate research from NASA and the ARCS Foundation. The scholarship enabled him to attend international conferences in Italy, Switzerland, Chile, and South Africa.

In 1995, Tyson began writing the column ‘Universe’ for the journal “Natural History,” which became quite successful. The magazine published a special edition titled “City of Stars” (2002), in which Tyson popularized the term ‘Manhattanhenge,’ which describes the two days of the year when the setting sun coincides with the Manhattan street grid. In 2001, U.S. President George Bush appointed Tyson as part of the 12-person group in the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry (C.F.U.S.A.I.). He played a crucial part in the 2002 publishing of the C.F.U.S.A.I.’s final report, which featured suggestions for the government for future optimization of space exploration and national security.

In 2004, he was reappointed by President Bush to a nine-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy. A few years later, the NASA administrator selected him to the organization’s Advisory Council. Also in 2004, he hosted the four-part NOVA miniseries titled “Origins.” He also co-wrote “Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution,” with Donald Goldsmith, as a companion volume to the miniseries. In November 2006, Tyson spoke at the “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival” symposium. He became a regular cast member in the History Channel series “The Universe.” In 2009, he worked with Donald Goldsmith as the narrator for the P.B.S. program “400 Years of the Telescope.” Currently, he holds the position of Frederick P. Rose, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. He is also a research associate in the American Museum of Natural History’s astrophysics department. His videos on YouTube are also quite popular.

In 2014, he hosted the show “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” which he labeled a ‘continuation’ of astronomer Carl Sagan’s popular series “Cosmos” (1980). In 2015, Tyson hosted a television discussion show modeled on his radio program. He occasionally portrayed himself in films and on television, and he also voiced Weasel in the children’s animated film “Ice Age: Collision Course” (2016). Tyson has authored numerous books, including his newest, “Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going” (2021).