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Neil deGrasse Tyson became fascinated with astronomy at age nine after visiting the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. He earned a bachelor’s from Harvard, a master’s from the University of Texas, and a PhD from Columbia University. He became director of the Hayden Planetarium in 1996 and oversaw its $210-million renovation. In 2014, he hosted Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a successor to Carl Sagan’s landmark series. He has received numerous awards, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal and the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Neil deGrasse Tyson — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Neil deGrasse Tyson by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Neil deGrasse Tyson — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
A visit to the Hayden Planetarium at age nine sparked Neil deGrasse Tyson’s interest in astronomy. He was born in Manhattan on October 5, 1958, to Sunchita Tyson Feliciano and Cyril deGrasse Tyson, and grew up in the Bronx. At the Bronx High School of Science, he served as editor-in-chief of the Physical Science Journal. Growing up in New York City gave him access to museums that nurtured his curiosity.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University in 1980, Tyson completed a master’s in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983. He earned a master’s 1989 and doctorate 1991 in astrophysics at Columbia University. After a postdoctoral research associate position at Princeton University, he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist in 1994 and became its director in 1996. He oversaw the planetarium’s $210-million reconstruction, completed in 2000. From 1995 to 2005, he wrote a monthly column for Natural History magazine, later collected in the book Death by Black Hole 2007. In 2014, he hosted the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a continuation of Carl Sagan’s 1980 series. He also served on government commissions on aerospace in 2001 and 2004.
He married Alice Young in 1988. The couple has two children: son Travis Tyson and daughter Miranda Tyson. He has a sister named Lynn Antipas Tyson and a brother named Stephen Joseph Tyson. His cousin is Monique Fortune. His parents are Sunchita Tyson Feliciano and Cyril deGrasse Tyson.
Neil deGrasse Tyson revolutionized science communication by making astrophysics accessible to the public. He received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2004, the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, and the NAS Public Welfare Medal. His books, television appearances, and leadership at the Hayden Planetarium continue to inspire new generations of astronomers and science enthusiasts. He hosted Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and has been an advocate for scientific literacy.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Neil deGrasse Tyson — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Neil deGrasse Tyson — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
The More Your Ideas Are Untestable, Either in Principle or in Practice, the Less Useful They Are to the Advance of Science.
Recognize That the Very Molecules That Make up Your Body, the Atoms That Construct the Molecules, Are Traceable to the Crucibles That Were Once the Centers of High Mass Stars That Exploded Their Chemically Rich Guts into the Galaxy, Enriching Pristine Gas Clouds with the Chemistry of Life. so That We Are All Connected to Each Other Biologically, to the Earth Chemically and to the Rest of the Universe Atomically. That’s Kinda Cool! That Makes Me Smile and I Actually Feel Quite Large at the End of That. It’s Not That We Are Better Than the Universe, We Are Part of the Universe. We Are in the Universe and the Universe Is in Us.
The Good Thing About Science Is That It’s True Whether or Not You Believe in It.
Where Ignorance Lurks, so Too Do the Frontiers of Discovery and Imagination.
Science Is Something to Be Proud Of, It Allows Us to Understand the World in Spite of Ourselves.
What Are the Lessons to Be Learned from This Journey of the Mind Through the Universe? That Humans Are Emotionally Fragile, Perennially Gullible, Hopelessly Ignorant Masters of an Insignificantly Small Speck in the Cosmos. Have a Nice Day.
I Am Proud to Be Part of a Species Where a Subset of Its Members Willingly Put Their Lives at Risk to Push the Boundaries of Our Existence.
One Thing Is for Certain: the More Profoundly Baffled You Have Been in Your Life, the More Open Your Mind Becomes to New Ideas.
When Your Reasons for Believing Something Are Justified Ad Hoc, You Are Left Susceptible to Further Discoveries Undermining the Rationale for That Belief.
If That’s How You Wanna Invoke Your Evidence for God, Then God Is an Ever Receding Pocket of Scientific Ignorance, Thats Getting Smaller, Smaller and Smaller as Time Goes On.
Ever Since There Have Been People, There Have Been Explorers, Looking in Places Where Other Hadn’t Been Before. Not Everyone Does It, but We Are Part of a Species Where Some Members of the Species Do, to the Benefit of Us All.
I Lose Sleep at Night Wondering Whether We Are Intelligent Enough to Figure Out the Universe. I Don’t Know.
Whenever People Have Used Religious Documents to Make Accurate Predictions About Our Base Knowledge of the Physical World, They Have Been Famously Wrong.
We Should Not Be Ashamed of Not Having Answers to All Questions Yet. … I’m Perfectly Happy Staring Somebody in the Face Saying, ‘I Don’t Know Yet, and We’ve Got Top People Working on It.’ the Moment You Feel Compelled to Provide an Answer, Then You’re Doing the Same Thing That the Religious Community Does: Providing Answers to Every Possible Question.
I Don’t Have an Issue with What You Do in the Church, but I’m Going to Be up in Your Face If You’re Going to Knock on My Science Classroom and Tell Me They’ve Got to Teach What You’re Teaching in Your Sunday School. Because That’s When We’re Going to Fight.
So What Is True for Life Itself Is No Less True for the Universe: Knowing Where You Came from Is No Less Important Than Knowing Where You Are Going.
Emotional Truths Woven by Lawyers in the Court of Law Are Apparently More Important Than the Truths of Actual Events. I Have Grown to Fear for Those Whose Innocence Became Trapped Within the Legal System.
To the Scientist, the Universality of Physical Laws Makes the Cosmos a Marvelously Simple Place. by Comparison, Human Nature-the Psychologist’s Domain-is Infinitely More Daunting.
Another Practice That Isn’t Science Is Embracing Ignorance. yet It’s Fundamental to the Philosophy of Intelligent Design: I Don’t Know What This Is … so It Must Be the Product of a Higher Intelligence.
Science Is a Philosophy of Discovery. Intelligent Design Is a Philosophy of Ignorance.
My Great Fear Is That We’ve in Fact Been Visited by Intelligent Aliens, but They Chose Not to Make Contact, on the Conclusion That There’s No Sign of Intelligent Life on Earth. We Were Sending Signals Out Before We Were Doing It on Purpose. Our Early TV Shows Like ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘the Honeymooners’ and That Sort of Thing – ‘Howdy Doody’. These Are Our Cultural Emissaries.
If I Went Around Always Calling Myself Doctor, That Would Mean You’d Have to Believe What I Said Because of My Authority. But, in Fact, If What I Say Is Fundamentally True, and You Understand Why It’s True, You Never Have to Reference Title Again.
Little-known facts about Neil deGrasse Tyson — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
In 1996, at his high school’s 20-year reunion, Tyson was voted the graduate with the coolest job.
Tyson made history as the first African American director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. He is also a researcher, a professor of astrophysics at Princeton University, and a science columnist. He has authored several books for non-specialists about space and the universe.
Tyson earned his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard, his Master’s from the University of Texas, and his PhD from Columbia University.
Tyson has two children: a son named Travis Tyson and a daughter named Miranda Tyson.
Tyson’s all-time favorite Broadway musical is Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Tyson is the brother of Stephen Joseph Tyson and Lynn Antipas Tyson.
Tyson is the son of Cyril deGrasse Tyson and Sunchita Maria Tyson.
Tyson is a cousin of Monique Fortune.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Celebrities similar to Neil deGrasse Tyson — same craft, ranked by reach.
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