BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Science ambassador Neil deGrasse Tyson returns to Bloomington for the first time since 2017 on March 26, 2026 presenting a lecture titled “An Astrophysicist Goes to the Movies – Part II.”

 

From the Wizard of Oz to Mary Poppins to 2001: A Space Odyssey to Harry Potter to A Bug’s Life, it will be an entertaining and enlightening review of all the science that favorite movies got wrong, combined with some of the stuff they got right. The discussion will incorporate the latest films as well as some classics that you may not have known had any science in them at all.

 

An astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, deGrasse is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Born and raised in New York City, Tyson earned his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.

 

A leading voice in making science accessible, Tyson has hosted acclaimed series such as PBS’s NOVA ScienceNOW and FOX/National Geographic’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and Cosmos: Possible Worlds. He is also the creator of StarTalk, the popular podcast and Emmy-nominated TV series blending science and pop culture.

 

He has written 18 books, including Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Death by Black Hole, and The Pluto Files, many of which are New York Times bestsellers. His most recent works include Starry Messenger and To Infinity and Beyond.

 

Appointed by Presidents and NASA, Tyson has served on multiple commissions guiding U.S. space policy. He has received 27 honorary doctorates, NASA’s highest civilian honor, and even has an asteroid and a species of frog named after him.