ON NEIL DEGRASS TYSON, PHYSICIST OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA (647 hits)

From The Washington Post

With more than 60 televised interviews, a regular column on astronomy in the science magazine Natural History, six books on astronomy, and in his high profile job as the youngest ever director of the world-class Hayden Planetarium in New York City, Neil de Grasse Tyson has over the past several years become the nation's most recognized astrophysicist. Tall, personable, outgoing and blessed with the ability to translate complex cosmic phenomena into something everyday people can grasp.

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.

Tyson published the first of six books on astronomy and astrophysics in 1988. In his latest book, an autobiography titled The Sky is not the Limit (Doubleday, 2000), he enthralls the reader with his interpretations of the universe, but in the chapter "Dark Matter" brings us down to Earth reminding us what it is like being a Black male in America where ven a highly educated and visible scientist like himself is forced to endure indignities provoked by suspicious cops, shop owners, cabbies, and cocktail party bores who assume he is less intelligent, less law-abiding, and less deserving because of his skin color.

Neil's work focuses primarily on two areas, dwarf galaxies (which are less than one-tenth the size of our "normal" Milky Way galaxy) and the "bulge" at the center of the Milky Way. To conduct his research, Neil has used telescopes all over the world. Today, Neil has a full and varied life. He is married, collects fine wines, continues to wrestle, and to study the stars. He shares his knowledge about the universe in many ways:. To help non-scientists understand the universe, Neil has published two books and is writing two more.

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.

In 2004 Dr. Tyson was selected as one of the 50 Most Important Blacks in Research Science.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Tuesday, March 2nd 2010 at 5:42PM
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