Carl Sagan Biography / Pictures

He was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a Jewish garment worker and his mother a housewife. Sagan attended the University of Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree (1955) and a master's degree (1956) in physics, before earning his doctorate (1960) in astronomy and astrophysics. He taught at Harvard University until 1968, when he moved to Cornell University.

Carl Sagan became a full professor at Cornell in 1971 and directed a lab there. He contributed to most of the unmanned space missions that explored our solar system. He conceived the idea of adding an unalterable and universal message on spacecraft destined to leave the solar system, that could be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find it. The first message that was actually sent out into space was a gold-anodized plaque on board of the space probe Pioneer 10. He continued to refine his designs and the most elaborate such message he helped to develop was the Voyager Golden Record that was sent out with the Voyager space probes.

He was well known as a coauthor of the paper that warned of the dangers of nuclear winter. He furthered insights regarding the atmosphere of Venus, seasonal changes on Mars, and Saturn's moon Titan. He established that the atmosphere of Venus is extremely hot and dense. He also perceived global warming as a growing, man-made danger and likened it to the natural development of Venus into a hot life-hostile planet through greenhouse gases. He suggested that Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa may contain oceans (a subsurface ocean in the case of Europa) or lakes that provide the foundations of life. He suggested that the seasonal changes on Mars were due to windblown dust.

His interest in these topics was in large part motivated by his interpretation of the Drake equation and the Fermi paradox. He believed that the Drake Equation suggested that a large number of extraterrestrial civilizations would form, but that the lack of evidence of such civilizations suggests that technological civilizations tend to destroy themselves rather quickly. This stimulated his interest in identifying ways that humanity could destroy itself, with the hope of avoiding such destruction and eventually becoming a space-faring species.

Carl Sagan's capability to convey his ideas allowed many people to better understand the cosmos. He delivered the 1977/1978 Christmas Lectures for Young People at the Royal Institution. He wrote (with Ann Druyan, whom he later married) and narrated the highly popular thirteen part PBS television series Cosmos; he also wrote books to popularize science (The Dragons of Eden (which won a Pulitzer Prize), Broca's Brain, etc.) and a novel, Contact, that was a best-seller and had a film adaptation starring Jodie Foster in 1997. The film won the 1998 Hugo award. From Cosmos Sagan became associated with the catchphrase "billions and billions" which he never actually used in the television series. (He simply often used the word "billions.") He wrote "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space", which was selected as a notable book of 1995 by The New York Times. Under the pseudonym "Mr. X", Sagan wrote an essay concerning pot smoking in the 1971 book "Reconsidering marijuana". Lester Grinspoon (the book's editor), disclosed this to Keay Davidson, Sagan's biographer. Sagan commmented that marijuana encouraged some of his works and enhanced experiences.

Carl Sagan was a proponent for the investigation seeking extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientific community to listen with large radio telescopes for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial lifeforms. He advocated sending probes to other planets. Sagan was Editor in Chief of Icarus (a professional journal concerning planetary research) for 12 years. He cofounded the Planetary Society, a society created to do major research in radio communication with extraterrestrial life, robotic exploration on Mars, the investigation of asteroids near the Earth. Carl Sagan was a member of the SETI Institute Board of Trustees.

Carl Sagan caused mixed reactions among other professional scientists. On the one hand, there was general support for his popularization of science, his efforts to increase scientific understanding among the general public, and his positions in favor of skepticism and against pseudoscience. On the other hand, there was some unease that the public would misunderstand some of the personal positions and interests that Sagan took as being part of the scientific consensus rather than his own personal views, and there was some unease, which some believe to have been motivated in part by professional jealousy, that scientific views contrary to those that Sagan took (such as on the severity of nuclear winter) were not being sufficiently presented to the public.

Carl Sagan did support theories about nuclear winter, global warming, and asteroids impacting the Earth. He was an early supporter of the Global Warming Theory. He also was a proponent of the Nuclear Winter Theory. Both theories are disputed in the scientific community. Some issues he commented on are open to doubt and suspicion (his comments on the Kuwait oil well fires during the first Gulf War were shown later to be in error).

Late in his life, Sagan's books developed his skeptical/atheist view of the world. Works from this period include The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark and Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the End of the Millennium, which includes Ann Druyan's account of Sagan's death as a non-believer. He develops tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments, presented in The Demon-Haunted World. He states that when new ideas are offered for consideration, they should be tested by means of skeptical thinking. If the new ideas continue in existence after examination by the propositions, he states that they should be acknowledged as suppositions. The tools for skeptical thinking essentially are means to construct, understand, reason, and recognize valid and invalid arguments. Conclusions emerging from a premise, and the validity of the premise, should not be discounted or accepted because of favor. Wherever possible there must be independent validation of the concepts whose truth can be proved. He believed that reason and logic would succeed once the truth is known.

Sagan was known to have a bit of an ego. In 1994, Apple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose the internal code name ?Sagan?, in honor of the astronomer. Though the project name was strictly internal and never used in public marketing, when Sagan learned of this internal usage, he sued Apple Computer to use a different project name. Though Sagan lost the suit, Apple engineers complied with his demands anyway, renaming the project "Butthead Astronomer". Sagan sued Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected him to contempt and ridicule. Sagan lost this lawsuit as well.

After a long and difficult fight with myelodysplasia, Sagan died at the age of 62, on December 20, 1996. Sagan was a significant figure, and his supporters credit his importance to his popularising the natural sciences, opposing both restraints on science and reactionary applications of science, defending democratic traditions, resisting nationalism, defending humanism, and arguing against geocentric and anthropocentric views.

The landing site of the unmanned Mars Pathfinder spacecraft was renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station in honor of Dr. Sagan on July 5, 1997. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named in his honor.

Lynn Margulis was the first wife of Carl Sagan, and mother of Dorion Sagan.

• Apollo Achievement Award - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Chicken Little Honorable Mention - 1991 - National Anxiety Center
• Distinguished Public Service - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Emmy - Outstanding individual achievement - 1981 - PBS series "Cosmos"
• Emmy - Outstanding Informational Series - 1981 - PBS series "Cosmos"
• Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Helen Caldicott Leadership Award - Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament
• Homer Award - 1997 - "Contact"
• Hugo Award - 1998 - "Contact"
• Hugo Award - 1981 - "Cosmos"
• Hugo Award - 1997 - "The Demon-Haunted World"
• In Praise of Reason Award - 1987 - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
• Isaac Asimov Award - 1994 - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
• John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award - American Astronautical Society
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award - 1974] - "The Cosmic Connection"
• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal - Soviet Cosmonauts Federation
• Locus Poll Award 1986 - "Contact"
• Lowell Thomas Award - Explorers Club - 75th Anniversary
• Masursky Award - American Astronomical Society
• Peabody - 1980 - PBS series "Cosmos"
• Public Welfare Medal - 1994 - National Academy of Sciences
• Pulitzer Prize for Literature - 1978 - "The Dragons of Eden"
• SF Chronicle Award - 1998 - "Contact"
• Carl Sagan Memorial Award - Named in his honor

• Sagan, Carl and Jonathon Norton Leonard and editors of Life, "Planets". Time, Inc. 1966
• Sagan, Carl and I.S. Shklovskii, "Intelligent Life in the Universe". Random House, 1966
• Sagan, Carl, "Communicaton with Extraterrestrial Intelligence". MIT Press, 1973
• Sagan, Carl, et. al. "Mars and the Mind of Man". Harper & Row, 1973
• Sagan, Carl, "Other Worlds". Bantam Books, 1975
• Sagan, Carl, et. al. "Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record". Random House, 1977
• Sagan, Carl et. al. "The Nuclear Winter: The World After Nuclear War". Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985
• Sagan, Carl and James Randi, "The Faith Healers". Prometheus Books, May 1989 ISBN 0879755350 318 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Richard Turco, "A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race". Random House, 1990
• Sagan, Carl, "The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence". Ballantine Books, December 1989 ISBN 0345346297 288 pgs
• Sagan, Carl, "Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science". Ballantine Books, October 1993 ISBN 0345336895 416 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan, "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are". Ballantine Books, October 1993 ISBN 0345384725 528 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan, "Comet". Ballantine Books, February 1997 ISBN 0345412222 496 pgs
• Sagan, Carl, "Contact". Doubleday Books, August 1997 ISBN 1568654243 352 pgs
• Sagan, Carl, "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" Ballantine Books, September 1997 ISBN 0345376595 384 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan, "Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium". Ballantine Books, June 1998 ISBN 0345379187 320 pgs
• Sagan, Carl, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark". Ballantine Books, March 1997 ISBN 0345409469 480 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Jerome Agel, "Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective". Cambridge University Press, January 15, 2000 ISBN 0521783038 301 pgs
• Sagan, Carl, "Cosmos". Random House, May 7, 2002 ISBN 0375508325 384 pgs
• Zemeckis, Robert, "Contact (1997)". Warner Studios ASIN 0790736330
• Davidson, Keay, "Carl Sagan : A Life". John Wiley & Sons, August 31, 2000 ISBN 0471395366 560 pgs