Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan (1934–1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, and one of the twentieth century's most influential science communicators. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he served as an assistant professor at Harvard before joining Cornell University, where he held the David Duncan Professorship in Astronomy. He is perhaps best known to general audiences through his television series Cosmos and his tireless effort to make scientific reasoning accessible without diluting it. His writing consistently pushed back against superstition and intellectual passivity, treating public understanding of science as a civic matter.