Neil DeGrasse Tyson Net Worth: How Rich Is The Astrophysicists

Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most famous astrophysicists worldwide and has earned notable recognitions in his profession and beyond. Here we’ll discuss his life, career, and net worth of about $15 million.

neil-degrasse-tyson net worth illustration

	Neil deGrasse Tyson Net Worth
Name	Neil deGrasse Tyson
Nickname	Neil
Birthday	5 October 1958
Age	64
Gender	Male
Height	6’ 2”
Weight	N/A
Partner	Alice Young
Kids	Miranda Tyson, Travis Tyson
Parents	Cyril deGrasse Tyson, Sunchita Feliciano Tyson
Siblings	Stephen Joseph Tyson, Lynn Antipas Tyson
Nationality	American
Profession	Astrophysicist, Author, Science Communicator
Net Worth	$15 million

Table of Contents

What is Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Net Worth?

Neil deGrasse Tyson has a net worth of about $15 million, which he earned through various sources. He makes a good income from his primary job at the Hayden Planetarium, but he’s also written notable books and made appearances on TV, in series, and in movies.

Neil is a family man who’s been married to his college girlfriend since 1988. He is a father of two and is now considered the most powerful nerd in the universe.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Early Life

Neil deGrasse Tyson was born 5 October 1958 in Manhattan, New York, USA. His parents were government officials; his mom, Sunchita, worked as a gerontologist for the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. His dad, Cyril, was a sociologist and human resource commissioner under Mayor John Lindsay and worked as the first Director of Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

Neil has two siblings, an older brother, Stephen Joseph Tyson, and a younger sister, Lynn Antipas Tyson. The Tyson’s lived in the Bronx, in the Castle Hill neighborhood, and later moved to Riverdale.

Neil’s education from kindergarten to high school was in the public schools in the Bronx. He attended The Bronx High School of Science, where he was the captain of the wrestling team and the editor-in-chief of the Physical Science Journal, graduating in 1976.

He’s said that his interest in astronomy began when he was nine and went to visit the sky theater of the Hayden Planetarium. During high school, Neil attended classes at the Planetarium and credited Mark Chartrand III as his first intellectual role model, inspiring young Neil with his lively and humoristic teaching style.

Astronomer Carl Sagan tried to get Neil deGrasse Tyson to attend Cornell University but instead chose Harvard, majoring in physics. Neil got his BA in physics in 1980 from Harvard College and enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin for his graduate work, graduating with MA in astronomy in 1983.

He was accepted into the astronomy graduate program at Columbia University in 1988; he earned an MPhil degree in astrophysics in 1989 and a Ph.D. in 1991 under Professor R. Michael Rich. During his studies, Tyson attended international meetings in Italy, Switzerland, Chile, and South Africa.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Personal Life

Neil deGrasse Tyson met his wife Alice Young in a physics class while working on his MA degree at the University of Texas. They married in 1988 and have been together ever since, and have daughter Miranda Tyson and son Travis Tyson.

In November and December 2018, Tyson was accused of sexual misconduct by four women. He denied the claims of rape, stated that his actions were misinterpreted, and apologized for any misunderstanding or offense.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and his wife live in Lower Manhattan, in Tribeca. He is an avid wine lover and has an extensive wine collection featured in the Wine Spectator and The World of Fine Wine.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Weight, Height, and Measurement

Neil deGrasse Tyson is 6’2” tall; his weight has fluctuated over the years. The 63-year-old scientist has a casual style and constantly has a smirk on his face.

Career: How Much Does Neil deGrasse Tyson Make?

Neil deGrasse Tyson graduated from Harvard University, got his MA from the University of Texas, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. After graduating, he joined the Hayden Planetarium in 1994 as a staff scientist while working as a research affiliate at Princeton University as a planetary scientist.

He became the acting director of the Planetarium in 1995 and was officially named director in 1996. He oversaw the $210 million reconstruction project of the Planetarium that was completed in 2000.

President George W. Bush appointed Tyson to the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry. Tyson was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by NASA.

Tyson hosted a four-part Origins miniseries on PBS Nova; he was the narrator of the documentary 400 Years of the Telescope in 2009. He was the co-host of the PBS program Nova ScienceNow until 2011 and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival symposium.

In 2007, Tyson was selected as a regular on The History Channel’s series The Universe. He launched a one-hour radio talk show, StarTalk with Lynne Koplitz, that was syndicated on Sunday afternoons and has now turned into a podcast.

In 2014, Neil deGrasse Tyson revived the TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan, presenting Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey for FOX and National Geographic.

He’s made notable appearances as himself in various shows like Stargate Atlantis and The Big Bang Theory and movies like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He’s also reviewed science-fiction movies like Gravity, Interstellar, and The Martian. He’s even made a guest appearance on Avenged Sevenfold’s album The Stage, narrating a monolog on the track Exist.

Neil deGrasse Tyson entered into a debate on Twitter, discussing whether Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson really went to space.

He’s authored several notable books, some becoming best-sellers and increasing his earnings. His YouTube channel for StarTalk has 1.82 million subscribers, and he has 14.7 million followers on Twitter.

His Facebook page is liked by 4.28 million people, and his Instagram has 1.7 million followers.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Quotes and Speeches

Here are some of the most notable quotes that we’ve selected from the many public speeches by Neil deGrasse Tyson:

The more your ideas are untestable, either in principle or in practice, the less useful they are to the advance of science.
Where ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination.
What are the lessons to be learned from this journey of the mind “through the universe”? That humans are emotionally fragile, perennially gullible, hopelessly ignorant masters of an insignificantly small speck in the cosmos. Have a nice day.
If that’s how you wanna invoke your evidence for god, then god is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance, that’s getting smaller, smaller, and smaller as time goes on.
Ever since there have been people, there have been explorers, looking in places where others hadn’t been before. Not everyone does it, but we are part of a species where some members of the species do, to the benefit of us all.
We should not be ashamed of not having answers to all questions yet. … I’m perfectly happy staring somebody in the face saying, ‘I don’t know yet, and we’ve got top people working on it.’ The moment you feel compelled to provide an answer, then you’re doing the same thing that the religious community does: providing answers to every possible question.

Final Word: Is Neil deGrasse Tyson a Millionaire?

Yes, Neil deGrasse Tyson is a millionaire with a net worth of about $5 million. He made money from his salary, book sales, guest appearances in TV shows and movies, and TV shows on PBS and National Geographic. He’s been married to Alice Young, his college girlfriend, and is a father of two children.

Learn more about: