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Carl Sagan
November
9, 1934 - December 20, 1996
Carl Sagan was an astronomer and
a Pulitzer Prize winning author who was often described as "the scientist
who made the Universe clearer to the ordinary person".
Carl Sagan was the David Duncan
Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for
Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the
American space program since its inception. He was a consultant and adviser to
NASA since the 1950's, briefed the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the
Moon, and was an experimenter on the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo
expeditions to the planets.
Dr.
Carl Sagan poses with a model of the Viking lander in Death Valley, Calif.
He is world-famous
for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the
award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which has been
seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most
widely watched PBS program in history.
"Billions and
Billions"
In case you never watched
the famous PBS prgram Cosmos, the above title was an expression used Carl Sagan
to approximate the countless stars, planets, and galaxies found in the universe.
It became Sagan's catch phrase. His final book was entitled Billions and
Billions.
He helped solve the mysteries of
the high temperatures of Venus (answer: massive greenhouse effect), the seasonal
changes on Mars (answer: windblown dust), and the reddish haze of Titan (answer:
complex organic molecules).
For his work, Dr. Sagan received
the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for
Distinguished Public Service, as well as the NASA Apollo Achievement Award.
Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named after him. He was also awarded the John F. Kennedy
Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society, the Explorers Club
75th Anniversary Award, the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet
Cosmonauts Federation, and the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical
Society, ("for his extraordinary contributions to the development of
planetary science ... As a scientist trained in both astronomy and biology, Dr.
Sagan has made seminal contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres,
planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology. Many of the most
productive planetary scientists working today are his present and former
students and associates").
He was also a recipient of the
Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences (for
"distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public
welfare ... Carl Sagan has been enormously successful in communicating the wonder
and importance of science. His ability to capture the imagination of millions
and to explain difficult concepts in understandable terms is a magnificent
achievement").
Dr. Sagan was elected Chairman of
the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society,
President of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and
Chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. For twelve years he was the editor-in-chief of Icarus,
the leading professional journal devoted to planetary research. He was cofounder
and President of the Planetary Society, a 100,000-member organization that is
the largest space-interest group in the world; and Distinguished Visiting
Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.
A Pulitzer Prize winner for the
book The Dragons of Eden: Speculations of the Evolution of Human Intelligence,
Dr. Sagan was the author of many bestsellers, including Cosmos, which became the
bestselling science book ever published in English. The accompanying Emmy and
Peabody award-winning television series has been seen by a billion people in
sixty countries. He received twenty-two honorary degrees from American colleges
and universities for his contributions to science, literature, education, and
the preservation of the environment, and many awards for his work on the
long-term consequences of nuclear war and reversing the nuclear arms race.
In their posthumous award to Dr.
Sagan of their highest honor, the National Science Foundation declared that his
"research transformed planetary science ... his gifts to mankind were
infinite."
He also wrote the novel Contact,
the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film of the same name starring Jodie
Foster. During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and
popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In
his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, humanism, and the
scientific method.
Dr. Sagan's surviving family
includes his wife and collaborator of twenty years, Ann Druyan; his children,
Dorion, Jeremy, Nicholas, Sasha, and Sam; and grandchildren.
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