Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson has been married to Alice Young since 1988. They have two children, Miranda Tyson and Travis Tyson.

Young holds a Ph.D. in mathematical physics and previously worked as an IT project manager with Bloomberg Financial Markets. Tyson lives in New York City.

Tyson's interest in astronomy began when he was nine years old after a visit to the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. His parents encouraged that interest through regular planetarium visits, and his father gave him a telescope for his twelfth birthday. As a teenager, Tyson watched the night sky from the roof of his apartment building, attended astronomy classes, and began giving astronomy lectures at age fifteen.

He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1976 and earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University in 1980. He later earned a master's degree in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983, followed by a master's degree and doctorate in astrophysics from Columbia University in 1989 and 1991. During his education, he was a member of wrestling teams and won a 1985 national ballroom-dancing gold medal in the International Latin style.

After three years as a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University, Tyson joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist in 1994. He became its acting director in 1995 and director in 1996, becoming the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship. In 1997, he founded the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History, where he also serves as a research associate.

Tyson oversaw a complete reconstruction of the Hayden Planetarium, which reopened in 2000. The new exhibits placed Pluto with Kuiper belt objects rather than with the terrestrial or Jovian planets. The decision prompted angry letters and became the subject of his 2009 book The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. The International Astronomical Union classified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Tyson became one of the most visible popularizers of astronomy through books, lectures, radio, and television. He hosted the PBS programs Origins in 2004 and NOVA ScienceNow from 2006 to 2011. In 2009, he began hosting StarTalk Radio, a science program and podcast that later expanded into television and additional podcasts.

In 2014, Tyson hosted and served as executive science editor for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a continuation of Carl Sagan's 1980 series. The thirteen-episode program received four Creative Arts Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and two Critics' Choice awards. Tyson returned as host for Cosmos: Possible Worlds, which premiered in 2020. He has also appeared as himself and provided voice performances in productions including Ice Age: Collision Course, The Big Bang Theory, and Family Guy.

Tyson's writing for general audiences includes Merlin's Tour of the Universe, The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Letters from an Astrophysicist, and Cosmic Queries. He also coauthored Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution with Donald Goldsmith, Accessory to War with Avis Lang, and Welcome to the Universe with Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott III. His later books include Starry Messenger and To Infinity and Beyond, coauthored with Lindsey Nyx Walker.

His research has addressed stellar evolution, galactic structure, star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of the Milky Way. Tyson served on the 2001 Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry and the 2004 commission on implementing U.S. space exploration policy. NASA awarded him its Distinguished Public Service Medal, and the asteroid 13123 Tyson was named in his honor. In 2015, he received the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2018, several women accused Tyson of sexual misconduct, including one accusation involving drugging and rape in 1984. Tyson disputed the accounts and said he welcomed further investigations.

Fox and National Geographic suspended projects involving Tyson while they investigated. In 2019, the networks announced that their investigations had concluded and that they would continue featuring his programs. The American Museum of Natural History also announced that its investigation had concluded and that Tyson would continue as director of the Hayden Planetarium.