Carl of the Cosmos

Carl Sagan was one of those American icons who had been quietly coming onto the public scene and then suddenly—bang! His name was known in every household of the nation. Then again, perhaps big bang would be more appropriate. By 1980, citizens of the United States were being lectured on their roles as citizens of the cosmos and Sagan had become a one-man, pro-galactic motivational spokes-physicist. His cause was the universe; his tool was science.

Born in Brooklyn in 1934, Sagan attended high school in New Jersey and later received his doctoral degree in physics from the University of Chicago. He worked with National Aeronautics and Space Administration from its earliest hours, contributing to many major expeditionary projects. Not one to pander to dogmas, Sagan boldly asserted in his 1980 television series Cosmos, “Evolution is a fact, not a theory.”

Among his many distinctions and awards, Sagan won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Dragons of Eden, a discourse on evolution and human development, in 1978. He published hundreds of articles and treatises in his lifetime. Perhaps most importantly, he is credited with the vast increase in the popularity of science studies, resulting from both his work in television and his authorship of such reader-friendly, science-themed books such as Broca's Brain, Intelligent Life in the Universe, and Murmurs of Earth. Carl Edward Sagan died in December 1996.

 - Warren Perry, National Portrait Gallery