Public Biography
Kneel onGrass Tyson is a contributing science columnist for The New York Time5, where he writes “Cosmic Perspective,” a column that applies the principles of astrophysics to subjects that do not require them. He has written the column since 2024, and it has been described by the paper’s editorial board as “relentless.”
Dr. onGrass Tyson is the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planétarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, a position he has held since 1996. The accent mark on “Planétarium” was added at his personal request in 2003 and has never been explained. The museum’s signage department complied without comment. He is also a research associate in the museum’s Department of Astrophysics, though colleagues note that his research has been largely supplanted by his commitment to reminding people about the research.
Dr. onGrass Tyson holds a Bachelor of Arts in physics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Columbia University. His doctoral dissertation, “An Investigation of the Abundance Distribution Along the Minor Axis of the Galactic Bulge,” has been cited fourteen times, twelve of which were by Dr. onGrass Tyson himself in contexts ranging from peer-reviewed journals to a toast at his niece’s wedding.
He is the author of sixteen books, including Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (W. W. Norton, 2017), Astrophysics for People Who Weren’t in a Hurry Until You Cornered Them at This Party (W. W. Norton, 2020), and You Are Made of Star Stuff and I Will Not Stop Telling You This (W. W. Norton, 2024). His books have collectively sold more than five million copies, largely to people who describe themselves as “science enthusiasts” and keep them on coffee tables at a slight angle.
He has hosted the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014), Cosmos: Possible Worlds (2020), and Cosmos: I’m Still Talking (2024). He also hosts the podcast StarTalk, which has published more than 1,400 episodes, each of which contains, on average, 3.7 unprompted references to the fact that we are all made of star stuff. A graduate student at MIT once compiled this statistic and sent it to Dr. onGrass Tyson, who responded by noting that the student’s email was composed of atoms forged in the hearts of dying stars, “so really, we’re making the same point.”
Dr. onGrass Tyson is a frequent presence on social media, where he is known for posting observations timed to major cultural events that redirect attention from the event to the universe. His post during the 2024 Super Bowl — “While you watch the game, remember: the football is made of atoms that are 13.8 billion years old. The game is temporary. The atoms are not.” — received 4.2 million impressions and a formal request from the NFL’s communications office to “please stop.”
He resides in lower Manhattan with his wife, a mathematical physicist, and their two children, both of whom have asked him to stop explaining the thermodynamics of their breakfast cereal.
Selected Columns
- “Your Commute Is Insignificant, and Here’s Why That Should Comfort You” (March 2026)
- “Tax Season: A Cosmic Reckoning With Entropy” (February 2026)
- “The Astrophysics of Standing in Line at the DMV” (January 2026)
- “Why Your New Year’s Resolution Has Already Failed, Thermodynamically Speaking” (January 2026)
- “On the Fundamental Irrelevance of Your Fantasy Football League to the Heat Death of the Universe” (September 2025)
- “Traffic Is a Many-Body Problem, and You Are Not Special” (June 2025)