- Person
- Carl Sagan
- Lived
- 1934–1996
- Field
- Astronomy, planetary science
- From
- American
The story
Carl Sagan taught at Cornell University for nearly thirty years, from 1968 until his death in 1996. He directed its Laboratory for Planetary Studies and held the David Duncan professorship of astronomy and space sciences, and he believed passionately in encouraging young people. The Planetary Society notes that many of the most productive planetary scientists of his time were his students and associates.
When Neil deGrasse Tyson was a 17-year-old deciding where to study, Sagan tried to persuade him to attend Cornell. Tyson never forgot the encounter. He later recalled that he already knew he wanted to become a scientist, but that afternoon he learned from Sagan the kind of person he wanted to become. Tyson went on to become an astrophysicist and a leading science communicator, and he later joined the Planetary Society's advisory council. In 2014 he hosted Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, the successor to Sagan's original series, produced by Ann Druyan and Seth MacFarlane.
Bill Nye, the television science educator, took Sagan's astronomy class at Cornell. In 2010 Nye became executive director of the Planetary Society, the organisation Sagan had co-founded thirty years earlier, and he later led it as chief executive. In 2013 Nye was among the speakers when the Library of Congress opened its archive of Sagan's papers.
Sagan's influence also reached deep into professional science. His former student David Morrison described him as an idea person and a master of intuitive physical arguments, and another student, Steve Squyres, led the team that landed the rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Mars in 2004. The British writer Simon Singh dedicated his book Big Bang partly to Sagan and the television scientists who had inspired him.
In 1994 the National Academy of Sciences gave Sagan its Public Welfare Medal, its highest award for applying science to the public good. The citation praised his ability to capture the imagination of millions and to explain difficult concepts in understandable terms. Through the people he taught and encouraged, that gift has been multiplied many times over.
Why it matters
By mentoring and inspiring figures such as Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, Sagan helped create a new generation of scientists and science communicators who carry his approach to new audiences.
About Carl Sagan
Brooklyn-born astronomer who explained the Venus greenhouse, helped send humanity’s messages on Pioneer and Voyager, and taught Cosmos viewers worldwide to look at the universe with wonder and doubt.
More about Carl Sagan
- Carl Sagan co-founded the Planetary SocietyIn 1980 Carl Sagan co-founded the Planetary Society and became its first president, building a public movement to support the exploration of space.
- Carl Sagan explained why Venus is a furnaceIn the early 1960s Carl Sagan argued from radio data that Venus's surface was about 500 °C because of a greenhouse effect, a conclusion confirmed by Mariner 2 in 1962.
- Carl Sagan showed Mars's changing colours were dustMany astronomers thought seasonal colour changes on Mars were spreading vegetation. Carl Sagan showed they were shifts in surface dust driven by windstorms.
- Carl Sagan asked Voyager to photograph the Pale Blue DotAt Carl Sagan's urging, Voyager 1 turned its camera homeward on February 14, 1990, and photographed Earth from about 6 billion kilometres away as a tiny pale blue dot.
- Carl Sagan designed humanity's first message to the starsGiven just three weeks by NASA, Carl Sagan and Frank Drake designed the Pioneer plaque, a message to any alien finders, now leaving the solar system aboard two spacecraft.
- Carl Sagan made the search for alien life respectableIn 1982 Carl Sagan published a petition in the journal Science supporting the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, signed by 70 scientists including seven Nobel laureates.
- Carl Sagan foresaw ocean worlds on Titan and EuropaCarl Sagan was among the first to suggest that Saturn's moon Titan might have surface liquids and that Jupiter's moon Europa might hide an ocean of water beneath its ice.
- Carl Sagan chaired the Voyager Golden Record committeeFor the Voyager probes launched in 1977, Carl Sagan chaired the committee that chose the Golden Record's contents, including greetings in 55 languages and 116 images of Earth.
- Carl Sagan warned Congress about climate change in 1985Drawing on his study of Venus, Carl Sagan testified to the US Congress in 1985 that the greenhouse effect would change Earth's climate.
- Kip Thorne helped Carl Sagan imagine Contact's wormholesFor his 1985 novel Contact, Carl Sagan asked his friend Kip Thorne how a wormhole might work. The book sold 1.7 million copies in two years and became a 1997 film.
- Carl Sagan's Cosmos reached 500 million peopleCosmos: A Personal Voyage, first broadcast in 1980, has been seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries, and its companion book was the best-selling science book of its time.
- Carl Sagan won a Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of EdenCarl Sagan's 1977 book The Dragons of Eden, on the evolution of human intelligence, won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and introduced his Cosmic Calendar.
- Carl Sagan gave the public a baloney detection kitIn The Demon-Haunted World (1995), Carl Sagan offered readers a toolkit for critical thinking and popularised the rule that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
- Carl Sagan warned the world about nuclear winterIn 1983 Carl Sagan co-authored the TTAPS study warning that a nuclear war could cool the planet, work honoured in 2022 with the Future of Life Award.
Sources
- Carl Sagan Wikipedia
- Carl Sagan The Planetary Society
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.