Diaspora, 10 February 2012

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Born: 1959
Place: Bronx, New York
Pre-doctoral education:

• B.A. from Harvard University (1980 physics)
• MS University of Texas at Austin ( )
• Doctorate: Ph.D. from Columbia University (Astrophysics)

Current employment. Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.

Neil Tyson realized that he wanted to study space science when he was a young boy looking up at the moon through a pair of binoculars. At the age of nine, when he traveled from the Bronx to sit for his first clear view of the night sky under the old Hayden planetarium dome, Neil De Grasse Tyson was formally introduced to the stars. His interest in science was not supported by his community, however; in Neil's New York City neighborhood, African-American boys were expected to be athletes, not scholars. In the streets of New York City, "being smart is not on the list of things that gets you respect," he recalls. Neil played sports with his friends, while also pursuing his interest in science. When he was thirteen, Neil went to summer astronomy camp in the Mohave Desert, where the sky was clear and he could see millions of stars. At the Bronx High School of Science, he focused his studies on astrophysics.

Being a gifted athlete did not sidetrack his childhood ambition. At Harvard University, Neil majored in physics, rowed on the crew team, joined the wrestling team and earned a Bachelor's degree in Physics. He earned a Master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and then went home to New York to do his doctoral work at Columbia. as an astrophysicist and research scientist at Princeton University, as a columnist for Stardate magazine, and, from 1996, as the acting director of the American Museum of Natural History-Hayden Planetarium.

On his role as an African-American scientist, he says that more is expected of him because of his race. "There's an extra social tax I have to pay," he says. "It's not a burden, I just pay the tax."

Now he is the youngest director in the Hayden Planetarium's long history.

Skip to around 29:30 for an amazing story.

Astronomers of the African Diaspora: Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson