Neil deGrasse Tyson, Doctor of Science
Dubbed by no less an authority than People magazine as “the sexiest astrophysicist alive,” you have brought new cachet to the scientific study of the universe. Your nine books and countless papers focus both on your research into star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of the Milky Way and on explaining new knowledge about the universe to those you call “blue-collar intellectuals”—people without college degrees but with natural interests in science. This discussion of deep issues with broad audiences also characterizes your monthly essays in Natural History magazine, your lively hosting of the television series “Origins” and “NOVA Science Now,” and your directorship of New York’s Hayden Planetarium. Your op-ed pieces and letters to the editor seem as numerous as the stars themselves. Your influence on the study and exploration of space has extended also through your work as Chairman of the Board of the Planetary Society and member of the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry, the Commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, and NASA’s Advisory Council. Your work represents one of the greatest contributions to the advancement of science literacy in our society at a time when that has never been more sorely needed, and it also shines as a beaming example to all those who, like you, grow up in neighborhoods that discourage learning that with curiosity, energy, and drive, to use the title of your autobiography, even “The Sky is Not the Limit.”
I hereby declare you recipient of the honorary degree Doctor of Science, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 3, 2007