Tyson has a BS in physics from Harvard, an MA in astronomy from Texas, an MPhil and PhD in astrophysics from Columbia, a three-year research postdoc at Princeton, and was employed as a staff scientist at Hayden before he became the director. He has 13 peer-reviewed publications in astronomy/astrophysics, including 5 of which for which he is first author. He has 10x more credentials than you need to be considered a scientist, and I respect his prolific science education work on top of that. There are few enough Black physicists out there that there's no need to diss anyone who has put in the work to succeed in the profession.
Research publications
- Twarog, Bruce A.; Tyson, Neil D. (1985). "UVBY Photometry of Blue Stragglers in NGC 7789". Astronomical Journal 90: 1247. doi:10.1086/113833.
- Tyson, Neil D.; Scalo, John M. (1988). "Bursting Dwarf Galaxies: Implications for Luminosity Function, Space Density, and Cosmological Mass Density". Astrophysical Journal 329: 618. doi:10.1086/166408.
- Tyson, Neil D. (1988). "On the possibility of Gas-Rich Dwarf Galaxies in the Lyman-alpha Forest". Astrophysical Journal (Letters) 329: L57. doi:10.1086/185176.
- Tyson, Neil D.; Rich, Michael (1991). "Radial Velocity Distribution and Line Strengths of 33 Carbon Stars in the Galactic Bulge". Astrophysical Journal 367: 547. doi:10.1086/169651.
- Tyson, Neil D.; Gal, Roy R. (1993). "An Exposure Guide for Taking Twilight Flatfields with Large Format CCDs". Astronomical Journal 105: 1206. doi:10.1086/116505.
- Tyson, Neil D.; Richmond, Michael W.; Woodhams, Michael; Ciotti, Luca (1993). "On the Possibility of a Major Impact on Uranus in the Past Century". Astronomy & Astrophysics (Research Notes) 275: 630.
- Schmidt, B. P., et al. (1994). "The Expanding Photosphere Method Applied to SN1992am at cz = 14600 km/s". Astronomical Journal 107: 1444.
- Wells, L. A. et al. (1994). "The Type Ia Supernova 1989B in NGC3627 (M66)". Astronomical Journal 108: 2233. doi:10.1086/117236.
- Hamuy, M. et al. (1996). "BVRI Light Curves For 29 Type Ia Supernovae". Astronomical Journal 112: 2408. doi:10.1086/118192.
- Lira, P. et al. (1998). "Optical light curves of the Type IA supernovae SN 1990N and 1991T". Astronomical Journal 116: 1006. doi:10.1086/300175.
- Scoville, N. et al. (2007). "The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS): Overview". Astrophysical Journal Supplement 172: 1. doi:10.1086/516585.
- Scoville, N. et al. (2007). "COSMOS: Hubble Space Telescope Observations". Astrophysical Journal Supplement 172: 38. doi:10.1086/516580.
- Liu, C. T.; Capak, P.; Mobasher, B.; Paglione, T. A. D.; Scoville, N. Z.; Tribiano, S. M.; Tyson, N. D. (2008). "The Faint-End Slopes of Galaxy Luminosity Functions in the COSMOS Field". Astrophysical Journal Letters 672: 198. doi:10.1086/522361.
What I don't respect are his poorly informed opinions on social issues. Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins are even more highly respected scientists than Tyson, and they constantly put out stupid, ill-informed statements on social issues as well. (Sam Harris is a much less respected "scientist" than any of them and yet tries to trade off on bullshyt credentials to push sociopolitical nonsense as well.)
