Neil deGrasse Tyson

Beginning with Mars, Tyson reviews the ongoing effort to search for habitable planets, liquid water, and life in the cosmos. “The Search For Life in the Universe” culminates in the search for intelligent life, whether or not it already exists on Earth.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, planetary scientist, author and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. In 1994, he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist and the Princeton faculty as a visiting research scientist and lecturer. Since 1996, he has been the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research associate in the department since 2003.

Tyson’s latest books are Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization containing his life’s wisdom on the intersection of science literacy and culture and To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery, coauthored with Lindsey Nyx Walker, both New York Times bestsellers. 

In 2024, Tyson published Merlin’s Tour of the Universe, a 21st century update of his very first book, a playful Q&A on the universe conducted by Merlin, a visitor from Andromeda whose task is to help Earthlings understand how the universe works. The book is illustrated by his artist brother, Stephen J. Tyson.