Bill Nye

Bill Nye is an American science communicator, television presenter, and mechanical engineer born William Sanford Nye on November 27, 1955, in Washington, D.C. He earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 1977, where he studied under astronomer Carl Sagan. He worked at Boeing in Seattle as an engineer in the early 1980s, contributing to a hydraulic resonance suppressor used on the 747.

Nye began performing stand-up comedy in Seattle and developed the Bill Nye the Science Guy character on the local sketch show Almost Live! after a host mispronounced his name. The educational television series Bill Nye the Science Guy ran from 1993 to 1998, was distributed in syndication and on PBS, and won 19 Emmy Awards. The show used short demonstrations, music parodies, and rapid editing to teach physical and life science concepts to elementary and middle school audiences.

After the original series ended, Nye hosted programs including The Eyes of Nye and the Netflix talk show Bill Nye Saves the World, which premiered in 2017. He has served as chief executive officer of The Planetary Society, the space-advocacy organization co-founded by Sagan, since 2010.

Nye is a vocal advocate for evidence-based science education and has publicly debated creationist Ken Ham at the Creation Museum in 2014. He holds several US patents, including one for a ballet pointe shoe and one for an educational magnifier, and he has written books such as Undeniable and Unstoppable.

Their name Bill derives from the Germanic elements wil meaning will or desire and helm meaning helmet, by way of the name William. Bill served as one of the dominant nicknames for William through much of the twentieth century in the United States.