Planetary Society President Named One of 100 Most Influential People by Time Magazine

Planetary Society President Neil deGrasse Tyson has been named one of the "Time 100," Time Magazine's selection of the 100 most influential people of the year. Listed in the Scientists & Thinkers category, Tyson shares the distinction with such notables as Al Gore and Alan Stern, the administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Time's website calls Tyson "the Carl Sagan of the 21st century...” and “the undisputed inheritor of his late predecessor's mantle as the great explainer of all things cosmic."

A long-time member of The Planetary Society's Board of Directors, Tyson follows Sagan in serving as president of the organization, the position Society co-founder Carl Sagan held until his death in 1996.

Tyson is the director of New York City’s Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. An author of seven books – including the New York Times best seller Death by Black Hole – Tyson also hosts the PBS series Nova Science Now.

Tyson's connection with Sagan is of long duration, having first met him when Tyson was a high school student applying to Cornell University, and Sagan invited the enthusiastic young applicant to visit him in Ithaca.

“Neil regularly conveys the wonder of the universe and the joy of discovery with barely containable enthusiasm,” said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society. “He widens the horizons of people around the world through his work with The Planetary Society. We greatly respect – and enjoy – Neil’s work, and it’s wonderful that Time Magazine agrees with us.”