All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!

Astrophysicist, Science Communicator and  Physical Cosmology                          

Selected Works:

Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier - 2012
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet - 2009
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries - 2007
The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist - 1st ed. 2000 / 2nd ed. 2004
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution - co-authored with Donald Goldsmith - 2004
My Favorite Universe - A twelve part lecture series - 2003
City of Stars: A New Yorker's Guide to the Cosmos - 2002
Cosmic Horizons: Astronomy at the Cutting Edge - 2000
One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos - 2000Just Visiting This Planet - 1998
Universe Down to Earth - 1994
Merlin's Tour of the Universe - 1989                          

Mother Sunchita Feliciano Tyson
Father Cyril deGrasse Tyson                          

Awards:

2001 - Medal of Excellence, Columbia University, New York City
2004 - NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
2007 - Klopsteg Memorial Award winner
2009 - Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award from the Space Foundation for significant contributions to public awareness of space programs - 2009
2009 - Isaac Asimov award from the American Humanist Association

Selected Honorary Doctorates:

1997 - York College, City University of New York
2000 - Ramapo College, Mahwah, New Jersey
2000 - Dominican College, Orangeburg, New York
2001 - University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
2002 - Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, New Jersey
2003 - Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
2004 - College of Staten Island, City University of New York
2006 - Pace University, New York City
2007 - Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
2007 - Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts
2008 - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2010 - University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama
2010 - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York
2010 - Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Connecticut
2011 - Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
2012 - Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts

Honors:

2000 - Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive, People Magazine
2001 - Asteroid named: 13123 Tyson, renamed from Asteroid 1994KA by the International Astronomical Union
2001 - The Tech 100, voted by editors of Crain's Magazine to be among the 100 most influential technology leaders in New York
2004 - Fifty Most Important African-Americans in Research Science
2007 - Harvard 100: Most Influential Harvard Alumni Magazine, Cambridge. Massachusetts
2007 - The Time 100, voted by the editors of Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world
2008 - Discover Magazine selected him one of the "50 Best Brains in Science".                          

ttp://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/

Neil deGrasse Tyson was giving lectures on the subject at the age of fifteen.

Astronomer Carl Sagan, was a faculty member at Cornell University, and tried to recruit Tyson to Cornell for undergraduate studies.

Tyson chose to attend Harvard University.