Neil deGrasse Tyson – Black Science Man was an American Astrophysicist who was born in the year 1958 on 5 October.
He was famously known as the Black Science Man means he contributed a lot to science. Neil deGrasse Tyson was an author who wrote graciously in the magazine and much scientific research too. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Black Science Man, was the planetary scientist too.
Neil deGrasse Tyson was the director at Hayden Planetarium at Rose Centre for Earth and Space in New York City since 1996.
The American Museum of Natural History the center part of the city where Neil deGrasse Tyson built the Astrophysicist department in 1997. And since 2003 it involves a research associate in the department.
Qualifications of Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Education is the basis of any scientific field in particular. He completed his high school and for the bachelor’s degree, he went to the famous Harvard University.
Then for the Master’s degree, he went to the University of Texas at Austin, and Finally for his Mphil and Ph.D. degree he went to Columbia University.
Then for this Ph.D. degrees, he had written the thesis, named A study of the abundance distributions along the mirror axis of the Galactic bulge.
In which the Doctoral advisor was Mr. R. Michael Rich and was influenced by Mr. Carl Sagan.
He joined the Hayden Planetarium in 1994 as the normal staff scientist who know after 2 years, he would become the director and would build the astrophysicist department worth about 210 million dollars which was completed by the year 2000.
As Author
When he was working on the planetarium, he tried his hands on the Magazine of Natural History he used to write in the Universe column of the magazine. Later he thought to write a book like Death by Black Hole in the year 2007, where some part of the universe column was there too 10 years later.
And one more masterpiece book, Astrophysics for People in a hurry in the year 2017.
During this writing time, he thought to start a monthly column to answer the people’s questions based on the universe on the Stardate magazine under the pseudonym Merlin.
The monthly Column was converted into a book named Merlin for the Universe (1998) and just visiting this planet 1998.
He served the U.S government also in his career for the Moon and Mars mission. Hence he was awarded by NASA.
Awards
NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, Public Service Medal in 2004, Public Welfare Award too back in the year 2015, and the Klopsteg Memorial Award in 2007.
- 2001 Medal of Excellence, Columbia University, New York City
- 2005 Science Writing Award
- 2009 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award from the Space Foundation for significant contributions to public awareness of space programs
- 2009 Isaac Asimov Award from the American Humanist Association
- 2014 Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Reality Show Host
- 2014 Dunlap Prize
- 2015 Cosmos Award, Planetary Society
- 2017 Hubbard Medal, National Geographic Society
- 2017 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, Starmus
- 2017 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album nomination for Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
- 2020 YouTube Gold Play Button Creator Award
Black Science Man
Famous TV shows and Podcast
He started hosting a television show in 2006 named NOVA ScienceNow and continued till 2011. Then he started a podcast named StarTalk, which was a weekly and then later by a spin-off by the same name was aired on National Geographic Channel in 2015.
And he hosted a very famous TV series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which was the continuation of the previous series of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Earlier Life
By heritage, he is an African American who was born in Manhattan. His family was from an African background as the deGrasse word is the Maiden name that has been taken from his paternal grandmother.
Her grandmother was from the Altima British West Indies, the island of Nevis. The Father of Neil deGrasse Tyson was a sociologist who worked as Human Resources Commissioner Department of New York City.
His name was Cyril de Grasse Tyson, whereas his mother’s name was Sunchita Maria Tyson was a gerontologist and worked in the Health, Education, and welfare department of the US.
Neil was the second child out of the 3 siblings in the family. He completed his kindergarten to high school education in the Bronx. His interest in the field of astronomy started showing at the age of 9.
When he used to go to the Hayden planetarium where he used to see the sky theatre, he used to be the editor chief in the school journal named Physical science journal. And was captain too for the wrestling.
Neil deGrasse Tyson – Black Science Man
Family Life
His wife’s name was Alice Young, whom he had met during physics class while doing his master’s degree from the University of Texas. His family used to live in lower Manhattan. He had two children named: Miranda and Travis.
His love for science can be seen from the fact that he kept his daughter’s name on the smallest moon of Uranus.
Net Worth & Networks
He was known as Black Science Man because his works were related more often to the research work where he focused on stellar evolution, Galactic astronomy, stellar formation, bulges, and cosmology.
He was in the top position of many famous and familiar institutions like Princeton University, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural history, and the University of Maryland.
The major position he held at the Hayden Planetarium where he started as a staff in 1994 and 1995 he became the acting director, and in 1996 he became the director where after becoming he made the reconstruction of the amount of about 210 million dollars.
In 2002, he was into writing in the special column of the magazine called the City of Stars. Tyson popularized the one term and the theory.
He coined the new term ‘Manhattanhenge’, and the theory was described as the 2 days annually on which the evening sun aligns with the street grid in Manhattan, making visible the sun along the unobstructed side streets. He had termed this phenomenon back in 1996.
This phenomenon reminds him of the Stonehenge Monument in England, where the sun solstice was in alignment. He also worked as an editor and author in the monthly and weekly column, which inspired him to become the Professor of The Great Courses.
Works of Neil deGrasse Tyson
He wrote many famous books such as Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (2007), Merlin’s Tour of the Universe, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet (2009), Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Edge (2000).
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier (2012), City of Stars: A New Yorker’s Guide to the Cosmos (2002 ), Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour (co-authored with Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott) (2016), The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist (2004), Just Visiting This Planet (1998), My Favorite Universe (a 12-part lecture series) (2003).
Race and Social Justice
Tyson has faced many interviews, but he was first interviewed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where Tyson talks about the suffrage of being a black person and being a well-known person, and acquiring many great positions. He tells the story of one of his interviews where he said that the TV host told him that he was first time interviewing a black person. This racism and stereotypes about black people especially can be seen in America.
As people think that black people are dumb ones. And then another stereotype prevails about the women that women cannot be scientific. And the same with the black people being scientists. He said there is nothing to do with them being black or women; it what the intellect matters.
Things do not matter with the fact that if you are a black persona or woman what matters in real life is how you survive in this world.
And Tyson had been asked about the genetic difference in a 2014 interview in Grantland and his experience in the 2005 panel that the genetic difference cannot be answered until the social barriers are removed.
Tyson has said that race and social barriers prevailing in society. He fought so much about race and black people, and he had to fight for it as it was in his blood from her mother. She worked as a public servant, after all. Took care of New York city for these many years.
Spirituality
Tyson believed in spirituality too. He wrote about science and spirituality. The spirituality works of his include the title like The Perimeter of Ignorance and Holy war. Tyson offered the meaning of spirituality.
He said that the spiritual means the feeling that connects you to the universe, and that way, you defy your simple vocabulary.
We have been some time or other heard that the universe is an intellectual playground that surely the universe is because it will touch your emotions as the moment you realize that you have learnt something more than being an intellectual that something is called as interaction with the spiritual world.
Tyson was asked in one of his interviews at Buffalo university that if he believes in a higher power, something beyond science; he replied that the higher power and its ever accounts and he has seen and described in all religions it includes many statements with regards to the relevance of the superpower.
When he looks at the universe, it is seen as the universe wants to kill us, but something is there protecting us. I find it hard to reconcile not with a statement of beneficence.
Again answered that well in an interview called Big think that what is Tyson’s stand on Religion, God, and spirituality. Tyson said that he rather like to call himself agnostic.
Meaning of agostic
A person who holds the view that any ultimate reality like God is unknown and probably will be unknown. Hence one who is not committed to believing in either existence or non-existence of God. And the person who is unwilling to commit to an opinion about something.
During the interview called ‘Called by the Universe’ held in 2009, Tyson disagrees with the claim of being an atheist; he said that he does have time and energy to waste in all this community thing and to convert the people for the same. Hence Tyson says He is an agnostic.
Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey
This was a scientific documentary that was based on the former show Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan back in 1980. This show inspired the 9-year-old Tyson to reproduce the same show with the name Cosmos A Spacetime Odyssey.
The show was written by Ann Druyan and Steven Soter and was presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Which barely contained 13 episodes and was broadcast on the National Geographic channel. It was premiered on 9 March 2014; it contains the storytelling approach, which includes the fabulous imagination of the ship and the cosmic calendar, and as it has made in the 21st century, so it contained computer graphics and animation, which made it interesting to watch.
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