Carl Sagan

Scientist: science-fiction and non-fiction writer

inspire science — Carl Sagan (on right) inspired people like Neil deGrasse Tyson (on left) to further study science

Here's a time line of Carl Sagan's life:

1934 - Born in New York
1955 - B.S. degree in physics at University of Chicago
1956 - M.S. degree in physics
1961 - is denied tenure at Harvard
1973 - writes Who's Out There: life on other planets
1977 - wins a Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of Eden
1980 - narrates the award-winning Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
1985 - writes Contact that becomes a movie in 1997
1994 - is awarded the Public Welfare Medal
1996 - dies of pneumonia at the age of 62 in Seattle

"Life in the Cosmos "He worked very hard for his students, got them jobs, worried about their education, many of them very well placed now"
-- William Poundstone, author of Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos

Neil deGrasse Tyson narrates more Cosmos 2014 & 2020

If you have time, you should read more about this incredible human being on his Wikipedia entry.