Neil deGrasse Tyson was born on October 5th, 1958 and is 63 years old, but when he was younger he had
a tough childhood and his teachers didn’t think he would come that far in life. But when one of his
teachers noticed his love for astronomy, they suggested that he should take lectures at the Hayden
Planetarium. There he decided to become an astrophysicist at a young age.
Today he is an American astrophysicist, who studied at Harvard, the University of Texas and Columbia
University, a author and science communicator and became the director of Hayden Planetarium about
30 years later he first visited it.
He contributed to demoting Pluto to a dwarf planet. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Tyson
to the Commission on the Development of the Us Aerospace Industry and in 2004 to the Presidential
Commission for the Exploration of the Moon, Mars and More. Later Tyson was awarded the NASA Medal
of Honor “For Outstanding Public Service”.
Tyson wrote several popular books on astronomy for example “The Pluto Files”, and “Death by Black
Hole”. He also is the host of a famous show called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, where he talks about
science.
In an interview with Tyson he talked about his first time being on television. There he briefly got asked a
few questions about physics for the news. While he watched back the interview, he noticed that the
reporter, who interviewed him, didn’t ask any questions about his skin color, or even mentioned his skin
color. The reporter only focused on the science. So, he probably has directly or indirectly experience
some sort of racism while being an astrophysicist.
Tyson is not currently a practicing astrophysicist, but he chose to currently work as a science
communicator. A science communicator fixes a big problem among the scientists. The significant
ignorance of the public about science and technology. His job is to get more famous and talk about
science. He stays up to date with what happens on the world and knows the fundamental aspects of the
physics behind it and explains it to the public in a way we can understand it. He might not be as
intelligent as Einstein, Tesla, or Stephen Hawking but he is as significant as anyone else, because he helps
spread knowledge to the public, so science could get ahead faster.
Tyson contributed a lot to his field and worked very hard to get to where he is right now. He exposes the
public to science and inspires people who otherwise never think about science. While the scientific
community doesn’t do anything to motivate younger generations, Tysons videos and shows reach
millions of people. He passionately explains important issues in a way people can understand it and
doesn’t make them feel dumb, but instead raises their curiosity.