Derrick Pitts, HON.D

Brief Bio

Derrick Pitts, Hon.D, is an American astronomer, and science communicator. He is currently the He is Chief Astronomer and Planetarium Director for the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been named as one of the 50 most important African Americans in research science.

Notable Works

Dr. Pitts is a graduate of St. Lawrence University, (Canton, NY) and received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from La Salle University (Philadelphia, PA). He was the 2010 Inaugural Recipient of The David Rittenhouse Award and was the 2012 NASA Solar System Ambassador.

He has made numerous television appearances, including shows such as The Colbert Report, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. He co-hosts a weekly radio discussion program called Skytalk on WHYY-FM^[6] in Philadelphia, PA. In addition, Dr. Pitts is the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

Quotes

After viewing Romanieo Jr. discussing science with his father, Dr. Pitts wrote the following:

“I was deeply impressed by what you’ve accomplished with your son. It brilliantly

illustrates what we can do for children if we try. I would love to see the effect [of] your

method in a larger group of children. What [Dr.] Tyson meant about children being born as

scientists is that all children are born wildly curious about everything in the world. Some of

us manage to hold on to our curiosity despite how the mainstream education system tries

its best to beat it out of us.

Some train and focus their deep curiosity into a disciplined tool than can be used to

see and define order in the seeming chaos of the universe. These are the people we call

scientists today. B.Franklin never lost his curiosity. Neither did Newton, the Curies,

G.W.Carver, Feynman, Einstein, Rees, or Hawking.

If we can educate more children without extinguishing the flames of curiosity AND

ability (as you’ve demonstrated so elegantly), we can raise children with much greater

scientific literacy.”