Neil De Grasse Tyson Popular Books

Neil De Grasse Tyson Biography & Facts

Neil deGrasse Tyson (US: də-GRASS or UK: də-GRAHSS; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. In 1994, he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist and the Princeton faculty as a visiting research scientist and lecturer. In 1996, he became director of the planetarium and oversaw its $210 million reconstruction project, which was completed in 2000. Since 1996, he has remained the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research associate in the department since 2003. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson wrote monthly essays in the "Universe" column for Natural History magazine, some of which were later published in his books Death by Black Hole (2007) and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017). During the same period, he wrote a monthly column in StarDate magazine, answering questions about the universe under the pen name "Merlin". Material from the column appeared in his books Merlin's Tour of the Universe (1998) and Just Visiting This Planet (1998). Tyson served on a 2001 government commission on the future of the U.S. aerospace industry and on the 2004 Moon, Mars and Beyond commission. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in the same year. From 2006 to 2011, he hosted the television show NOVA ScienceNow on PBS. Since 2009, Tyson has hosted the weekly podcast StarTalk. A spin-off, also called StarTalk, began airing on National Geographic in 2015. In 2014, he hosted the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a successor to Carl Sagan's 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences awarded Tyson the Public Welfare Medal in 2015 for his "extraordinary role in exciting the public about the wonders of science". Early life and education Tyson was born in Manhattan as the second of three children, into a Catholic family living in the Bronx. His African-American father, Cyril deGrasse Tyson (1927–2016), was a sociologist, human resource commissioner for New York City mayor John Lindsay, and the first Director of Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited. His mother, Sunchita Maria Tyson (née Feliciano; 1928–2023), was a gerontologist for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and is of Puerto Rican descent. Tyson has two siblings: Stephen Joseph Tyson and Lynn Antipas Tyson. Tyson's middle name, deGrasse, is from the maiden name of his paternal grandmother, who was born as Altima de Grasse in the British West Indies island of Nevis.Tyson grew up in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, and later in Riverdale. From kindergarten throughout high school, Tyson attended public schools in the Bronx: PS 36 Unionport, PS 81 Robert J. Christen, the Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy (MS 141), and graduated from The Bronx High School of Science in 1976 where he was captain of the wrestling team and editor-in-chief of the Physical Science Journal. His interest in astronomy began at the age of nine after visiting the sky theater of the Hayden Planetarium. He recalled that "so strong was that imprint [of the night sky] that I'm certain that I had no choice in the matter, that in fact, the universe called me." During high school, Tyson attended astronomy courses offered by the Hayden Planetarium, which he called "the most formative period" of his life. He credited Mark Chartrand III, director of the planetarium at the time, as his "first intellectual role model" and his enthusiastic teaching style mixed with humor inspired Tyson to communicate the universe to others the way he did.When he was 14, he received a scholarship from the Explorers Club of New York to view the June 1973 total solar eclipse aboard the SS Canberra. The scientific cruise carried two thousand scientists, engineers, and enthusiasts, including Neil Armstrong, Scott Carpenter, and Isaac Asimov.Tyson obsessively studied astronomy in his teen years, and eventually even gained some fame in the astronomy community by giving lectures on the subject at the age of fifteen. Astronomer Carl Sagan, who was a faculty member at Cornell University, tried to recruit Tyson to Cornell for undergraduate studies. In his book, The Sky Is Not the Limit, Tyson wrote: My letter of application had been dripping with an interest in the universe. The admission office, unbeknownst to me, had forwarded my application to Carl Sagan's attention. Within weeks, I received a personal letter... Tyson revisited this moment on his first episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Pulling out a 1975 calendar belonging to the famous astronomer, he found the day Sagan invited the 17-year-old to spend a day in Ithaca. Sagan had offered to put him up for the night if his bus back to the Bronx did not come. Tyson said, "I already knew I wanted to become a scientist. But that afternoon, I learned from Carl the kind of person I wanted to become."Tyson chose to attend Harvard where he majored in physics and lived in Currier House. He was a member of the rowing team during his freshman year, but returned to wrestling, lettering (achieving varsity team rank) in his senior year. He was also active in dance, in styles including jazz, ballet, Afro-Caribbean, and Latin Ballroom. Tyson earned a BA degree in physics at Harvard College in 1980 and then began his graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin, from which he received an MA degree in astronomy in 1983. By his own account, he did not spend as much time in the research lab as he should have. His professors encouraged him to consider alternative careers and the committee for his doctoral dissertation was dissolved, ending his pursuit of a doctorate from the University of Texas.Tyson was a lecturer in astronomy at the University of Maryland from 1986 to 1987 and in 1988, he was accepted into the astronomy graduate program at Columbia University, where he earned an MPhil degree in astrophysics in 1989, and a PhD degree in astrophysics in 1991 under the supervision of Professor R. Michael Rich. Rich obtained funding to support Tyson's doctoral research from NASA and the ARCS Foundation, enabling Tyson to attend international meetings in Italy, Switzerland, Chile, and South Africa and to hire students to help him with data reduction. In the course of his thesis work, he observed using the 0.91 m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, where he obtained images for the Calán/Tololo Supernova Survey helping to further their work in establishing Type Ia supernovae as standard candles. During his thesis research at Columbia University, Tyson became acquainted with Professor David Spergel at Princeton Univer.... Discover the Neil De Grasse Tyson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Neil De Grasse Tyson books.

Best Seller Neil De Grasse Tyson Books of 2024

  • The Secret Lives of Planets synopsis, comments

    The Secret Lives of Planets

    Paul Murdin

    An insider's guide to astronomy reveals everything you need to know about the planets, their satellites, and our place in the solar system.We have the impression that the solar sys...

  • The Neuroscience of Excellent Sleep synopsis, comments

    The Neuroscience of Excellent Sleep

    Stan Rodski

    How to use the insights of neuroscience and the techniques of mindfulness to get a good night's sleep.Everyone's familiar with the consequences of lost sleep: you're groggy and irr...

  • Cosmos synopsis, comments

    Cosmos

    Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan

    RETURNING TO TELEVISION AS AN ALLNEW MINISERIES ON FOX   Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In cleareyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewellike blue world i...

  • Summary Of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry By Neil deGrasse Tyson synopsis, comments

    Summary Of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry By Neil deGrasse Tyson

    Speed Read Publishing

    Speed Read Publishing has created a Summary of book for your reading pleasure. Designed to enhance your reading experience. What does this Summary Include?Each Part wise Chapt...

  • The Magick of Physics synopsis, comments

    The Magick of Physics

    Felix Flicker

    An awardwinning Oxford physicist draws on classic scifi, fantasy fiction, and everyday phenomena to explain and celebrate the magical properties of the world around us.If you were ...

  • SUMMARY - Astrophysics For People In A Hurry By Neil DeGrasse Tyson synopsis, comments

    SUMMARY - Astrophysics For People In A Hurry By Neil DeGrasse Tyson

    Shortcut Edition

    Our summary is short, simple and pragmatic. It allows you to have the essential ideas of a big book in less than 30 minutes. As you read this summary, you will discover that the u...

  • First Contact synopsis, comments

    First Contact

    Marc Kaufman

    Are we alone in the universe? Almost certainly not. In First Contact, Marc Kaufman provides a gripping tour of the magnificent new science of astrobiology that is closing in on the...

  • The Edge of Knowledge synopsis, comments

    The Edge of Knowledge

    Lawrence M. Krauss

    Lawrence Krauss explores the greatest unanswered questions at the forefront of science today, and likely for the coming century and beyond.Internationally known theoretical physici...

  • See You in the Cosmos synopsis, comments

    See You in the Cosmos

    Jack Cheng

    “I haven't read anything that has moved me this much since Wonder.” Jennifer Niven, author of All the Bright PlacesA spaceobsessed boy and his dog, Carl Sagan, take ...

  • On the Origin of Species synopsis, comments

    On the Origin of Species

    Charles Darwin & Natalie Ramm

    This exciting anniversary edition has a new introduction and scholarly references by William Bynum, and the cover design is by Damien Hirst. It replaces our existing 1968 edition. ...

  • Bringing Columbia Home synopsis, comments

    Bringing Columbia Home

    Michael D. Leinbach, Jonathan H. Ward, Robert Crippen & Eileen M. Collins

    Voted the Best Space Book of 2018 by the Space HipstersThe dramatic inside story of the epic search and recovery operation after the Columbia space shuttle disaster. On February 1,...

  • They Are Already Here synopsis, comments

    They Are Already Here

    Sarah Scoles

    More than fifty years since Roswell, UFOs have been making headlines once again. But the UFO communitythose who had been thinking about, seeing, and analyzing supposed flying sauce...

  • Discover Physics synopsis, comments

    Discover Physics

    Benjamin Crowell

    Since birth, you've wanted to discover things. You started out by putting every available object in your mouth. Later you began asking the grownups all those "why" ques...

  • The Left Brain Speaks, the Right Brain Laughs synopsis, comments

    The Left Brain Speaks, the Right Brain Laughs

    Ransom Stephens

    In The Left Brain Speaks, but the Right Brain Laughs, physicist Ransom Stephens explains the interesting and often amusing tale of how the human brain works. Using understandable m...

  • Neil deGrasse Tyson synopsis, comments

    Neil deGrasse Tyson

    Jill Sherman

    In addition to speaking about challenging scientific topics for a variety of news sources, Neil deGrasse Tyson is director of a New York planetarium, hosts a science podcast, and h...

  • Radio-Active Substances synopsis, comments

    Radio-Active Substances

    Marie Curie

    "The object of the present work is the publication of researches which I have been carrying on for more than four years on radioactive bodies. I began these researches by a stu...

  • From Newton to Einstein - The Changing Conceptions of the Universe synopsis, comments

    From Newton to Einstein - The Changing Conceptions of the Universe

    Benjamin Harrow, Albert Einstein, Arthur Stanley Eddington, Joseph Sweetman Ames, Joseph John Thomson & Frank Watson Dyson

    Einstein's contributions to our ideas of time and space and to our knowledge of the universe in general, are of so momentous a nature, that they easily take their place among t...

  • Books do Furnish a Life synopsis, comments

    Books do Furnish a Life

    Richard Dawkins

    'A rich feast of his essays, reviews, forewords, squibs and conversations, in which talent and passion are married to deep knowledge.' Matt Ridley'Enjoy the unfailing clarity of h...

  • Astrophysics for the People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson synopsis, comments

    Astrophysics for the People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

    Turbo-Learning

    A Comprehensive Book Guide of Astrophysics for the People in a Hurry Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is written by Neil de Grasse Tyson. Tyson is a popular scientist, who has...

  • The Theory of Relativity synopsis, comments

    The Theory of Relativity

    Albert Einstein

    The present book is intended, as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of ...

  • The Short Story of the Universe synopsis, comments

    The Short Story of the Universe

    Gemma Lavender & Mark Fletcher

    The Short Story of the Universe is a new introduction to the subject of the universe. Covering 130 key components that make it up from dwarf galaxies and spiral arms to red giants...

  • Summary of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson synopsis, comments

    Summary of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

    C.B. PUBLISHERS

    The book covers topics such as the nature of time and space, the history of astronomy, and the current understanding of the universe, black holes, and dark matter.The writing style...

  • The Shadows of Socrates synopsis, comments

    The Shadows of Socrates

    Matt Gatton

    The death of Socrates may be the most famous unsolved murder in history. Set during the Peloponnesian War, this narrative solves that mystery, revealing for the first time how the ...

  • The Quantum Universe synopsis, comments

    The Quantum Universe

    Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

    International bestselling authors Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw's fascinating, entertaining, and clear introduction to quantum mechanics In The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Fo...