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Bill Nye

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For the 19th century journalist, see Edgar Wilson Nye. For the English actor with a similar-sounding name, see Bill Nighy.
File:Billnye spinner.jpg
Bill Nye as the "technical expert" on the TV show BattleBots.

William Sanford Nye (b. November 27, 1955) also known as "Bill Nye the Science Guy," is an American television program host, scientist, and mechanical engineer.

Biography

BILL NYE DIED AT 42 IN 1998 AFTER A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT GONE WRONG Bill Nye was born in Washington, D.C. He attended elementary school at Westbrook Elementary School. He later attended Sidwell Friends School, graduating in 1973. He attended college at Cornell University's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where he studied under Carl Sagan and graduated in 1977 with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. In addition to attending Cornell, he studied under Dr. John Saputo at Washington State University. Nye began his career at Boeing where, among other things, he starred in training films and developed a hydraulic pressure resonance suppressor still used in the company's 747 airliner today.

Before getting into entertainment, Nye worked as a consultant and in the aeronautics industry. At one time, while working on the A-12 stealth attack aircraft, Nye had level-three security clearance with the U.S. Department of Justice. Nye is also a member and fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Nye told the St. Petersburg Times in 1999 that he applied to be a NASA astronaut every few years but was always rejected.[1]

Nye has been a licensed mechanical engineer in Washington since 1983.

Nye got his television start performing on a Seattle-area sketch comedy show called Almost Live!, and appeared regularly on the show for many seasons. He left the show to start producing Bill Nye the Science Guy in 1992. Once famous, Bill returned as a guest-star for an episode that opened with a skit of Nye not being recognized and having trouble entering the King 5 building. Nye was also the assistant of Dr. Emmett L. Brown in the live-action segments of Back to the Future: The Animated Series (1991–1993). In one episode, Bill corrected Doc Brown on the correct pronunciation of gigawatt (not jigawatt), only for Doc Brown to fire back with "What are you, Bill Nye the science guy?" It was here that a legend was born.

The Science Guy

Main article: Bill Nye the Science Guy

Nye hosted the Emmy Award-winning educational television program Bill Nye the Science Guy from 1992 to 1998. Each episode (100 in all) aimed to teach a specific topic in science to a preteen audience, yet it garnered a wide adult audience as well. The show was (and still is) popular as a television show and as a school resource. He has written several books as The Science Guy. In addition to hosting the show, he was also a writer and producer for it.

Bill Nye has starred alongside Ellen DeGeneres, Alex Trebek, and the tourists of Walt Disney World in "Ellen's Energy Adventure", an attraction playing since 1996 in the Universe of Energy pavilion inside Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort.

Post-Science Guy entertainment career

Nye remains interested in science education through entertainment. He is currently creating a new public television science television series, called The Eyes of Nye, aimed at more mature audiences than his previous show. It often features episodes based on politically relevant themes such as genetically-modified foods, climate warming, and race. From 2000 to 2002, Nye appeared as the on-screen "technical expert" on the combat robot TV show BattleBots. Interestingly, Nye even held the boom microphone during four episodes of Popular Mechanics for Kids, a Canadian-produced show that debuted after his series ended.

Nye hosted the attraction "Cyberspace Mountain" at Walt Disney World's interactive arcade theme park Disneyquest. The attraction allows guests to create their own roller coaster that they get to ride in simulator form.

Nye also hosted the Science & Nature category in the 2004 Atari video game Trivial Pursuit Unhinged, along with Terry Bradshaw, Brooke Burke, John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, and John Ratzenberger.

Nye played the role of a science teacher in Disney's Principal Takes a Holiday. Though a small role, when Nye's students claim they need to be "shown" how science works, Nye goes on to make a hovercraft to demonstrate science in an unusual classroom manner.

Nye has appeared in two episodes of the CBS TV drama NUMB3RS as a Bill Waldie, a professor at the fictional 'Cal-Sci' Univeristy with David Krumholtz's character, Professor Charles Eppes.

  • Episode "Scorched" (2005) as a Professor Bill Waldie in the combustion lab.[2]
  • Episode "Hardball" (2006) as a Professor Bill Waldie in the Mathematical Sciences (Statistics) department.

In 2005, Bill Nye hosted 100 Greatest Discoveries, an award-winning series for Discovery's Science Channel produced by Thinkfilm, Inc. in Washington, DC.

He also appears on Fox News as a science contributor.

Bill Nye currently writes a column on the MSN Encarta website called Ask Bill Nye.

Scientific and personal life, 1998—

In the early 2000s, Nye assisted in the development of a small sundial that was included in the Mars Exploration Rover missions. Known as MarsDial, it included small colored panels to provide a basis for color calibration in addition to helping keep track of time.[3]

Nye is also the vice president of The Planetary Society, an organization that advocates space science research and the exploration of other planets, particularly Mars.

He holds several patents, including one for a ballet shoe and another for a magnifying glass that uses water.

In 2001, he was appointed as Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor at Cornell University for three years. The professorship has since been extended to 2006. He has received two honorary doctorates, one from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and another from Goucher College.

On February 3, 2006, Nye married Blair Tindall.[4] Tindall and Nye had been engaged for five months. The pair exchanged watches instead of rings "as a symbol," Nye explained, "of man’s reckoning with time".[5] Tindall is the author of Mozart in the Jungle and she is a former concert oboist. The two exchanged vows at Richard Saul Wurman’s The Entertainment Gathering 2006 conference where Nye spoke. They were married by the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, accompanied by MIT Media Lab professor Michael Hawley on the piano, performed a wedding march. The engagement was announced by Nye, while appearing on the December 19, 2005 episode of talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Bill Nye and Blair Tindall ended their marriage seven weeks after the conference ceremony. An invalid marriage license and "too much too soon" were cited as the reasons for the split. Tindall announced this publicly on the LA radio show, The David Lawrence Show (July 2006).

Following the aftermath of the Pluto renaming controversy, Bill Nye stated that he agreed with the change.[6]

In December 2006, he appeared at the YES! Expo in Ford Field to speak to students there, along with Mayor of Detroit, and Mike-e.

Trivia

  • He is now a co-host on the Weather Channel TV series The Climate Code.
  • He's cited in the song "Leaving Jesusland" by NOFX.

References

  1. ^ Davis, Pamela (1999 October 11). "Bill Nye, the successful guy". St. Petersburg Times.
  2. ^ Credits at TV.com
  3. ^ Friend, T. (2004 January 5). The sun on Mars. In The talk of the town. The New Yorker, LXXIX, 27.
  4. ^ Photo of Nye's wedding
  5. ^ "Bill Gets Hitched", LA Weekly
  6. ^ "'Science Guy' Likes Pluto Change", ABC News, 27 August 2006.
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