American Museum of Natural History Hayden Planetarium

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Frederick P. Rose Director, Hayden Planetarium

Ph.D., Columbia University, 1991 "A Study of the Abundance Distributions Along the Minor Axis of the Galactic Bulge"

RESEARCH

Neil deGrasse Tyson's professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as from telescopes in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and in the Andes Mountains of Chile.

In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.

In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the "Moon, Mars, and Beyond" commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget.

In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. He is a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title "Universe." And among Tyson's eight books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS-NOVA 4-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson serves as on-camera host. Beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson hosts the PBS-NOVA's spinoff program NOVA ScienceNow, which is an acessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.

Tyson is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium.

RECENT SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS

S. Tribiano, T. A. D. Paglione, P. L. Shopbell, P. Capak, M. Kitbichler, C. T. Liu, B. Mobasher, N. Scoville, and N. D. Tyson 2006, "The High-Redshift Distribution of Starburst Galaxies in the COSMOS Field", Astrophysical Journal Letters xxx, Submitted

Charles T. Liu, Peter Capak, Bahram Mobasher, Timothy A. D. Paglione, Nicholas Z. Scoville, Shana M. Tribiano, and Neil D. Tyson 2006, "The Faint End Slope Of Starburst Galaxy Luminosity Functions In The COSMOS 2-Square Degree Field", Astrophysical Journal xxx, In Press