Ann Druyan

"Druyan" redirects here. For the asteroid named after Ann Druyan, see 4970 Druyan.
Ann Druyan

Ann Druyan, Executive Producer and Writer of COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey, accepts the Peabody with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mitchell Cannold and Brannon Braga.
Born (1949-06-13) June 13, 1949
Queens, New York, U.S.
Known for Author, activist, producer
Spouse(s) Carl Sagan (1981–1996; his death)
Children Alexandra Rachel "Sasha" Druyan Sagan (1982)
Samuel Democritus Druyan Sagan (1991)

Ann Druyan (/ˈdri.æn/ DREE-an;[1] born June 13, 1949) is an Emmy Award-winning American writer and Peabody Award-winning producer specializing in the communication of science. She co-wrote the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos, hosted by Carl Sagan (1934–1996), whom she married in 1981. She is the creator, producer, and writer of the 2014 sequel, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.

She was the Creative Director of NASA's Voyager Interstellar Message Project, the golden discs affixed to both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft.[2]

Early life

Druyan was born in Queens, New York, the daughter of Pearl A. (née Goldsmith) and Harry Druyan, who co-owned a knitware firm.[3][4][5]

Career as an author

Druyan's first novel, A Famous Broken Heart, was published in 1977.

Druyan co-wrote six New York Times best-sellers with Carl Sagan, including: Comet,[6] Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,[7] and The Demon-Haunted World.[8][9] She is co-author, along with Carl Sagan, F. D. Drake, Timothy Ferris, Jon Lomberg and Linda Salzman Sagan, of Murmurs Of Earth : The Voyager Interstellar Record.[10] She also wrote the updated introduction to Sagan's book The Cosmic Connection, and the epilogue of Billions and Billions. She edited and wrote the introduction to a book of Sagan's 1985 Gifford lectures, The Varieties of Scientific Experience.

Work in science

As Creative Director of NASA's Voyager Interstellar Message Project, Druyan worked with a team to design a complex message, including music and images, for possible alien civilizations. These golden phonograph records affixed to the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft are now beyond the outermost planets of the solar system and Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space. Both records have a projected shelf life of one billion years.[11][12]

Druyan is a Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims for the Paranormal (CSICOP).[13]

Druyan served as Program Director of the first solar sail deep space mission, Cosmos 1, launched on a Russian ICBM in 2005.[14]

Druyan is involved in multiple Breakthrough Initiatives. With Frank Drake, Druyan is the co-chair of Breakthrough Message,[15] and she is also a member of Breakthrough Starshot.[16]

She is a member of the advisory board of The Carl Sagan Institute.[17]

Work in film and television

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ann Druyan in Sydney

Druyan wrote and produced the 1987 PBS NOVA episode Confessions of a Weaponeer on the life of President Eisenhower's Science Advisor, George Kistiakowsky.[18]

In 2000, Druyan co-founded Cosmos Studios, Inc, with Joseph Firmage.[19] As CEO of Cosmos Studios, Druyan produces science-based entertainment for all media. In addition to Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, Cosmos Studios has produced Cosmic Africa,[20] Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt,[21] and the Emmy-nominated[22] documentary Cosmic Journey: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message.[23]

Druyan was one of the three writers of the TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, along with Carl Sagan and Steven Soter, and a producer for the motion picture Contact.

Druyan is the chief executive officer and the co-founder of Cosmos Studios. In 2009, she distributed a series of podcasts called At Home in the Cosmos with Annie Druyan in which she described her works, the life of her husband, Carl Sagan, and their marriage.

In 2011, it was announced that Druyan would be part of the writing and production teams for a sequel to Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, to be called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which began airing in March 2014.[24][25] Episodes premiered on Fox and also aired on National Geographic Channel on the same night.[26]

Activism

Druyan has served on the Board of Directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for over 10 years and was president from 2006 to 2010.[27][28]

Honors

In November 2006, Druyan was a speaker at "Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival".

In January 2007, she was a juror at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, responsible for selecting the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize for films about science and technology.[29]

Religious and philosophical views

In an interview with Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post, Druyan stated that her early interest in science stemmed from a fascination with Karl Marx. Achenbach commented that "She had, at the time, rather vaporous standards of evidence," a reference to her belief in the ancient astronauts of Erich von Däniken and the theories of Immanuel Velikovsky pertaining to the Solar System.[30] Druyan freely acknowledged her past views and also said that they changed dramatically after marrying Carl Sagan.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ In the revised edition of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Ann Druyan introduces herself in a prologue to Episode No. 1 on YouTube.
  2. ↑ http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/apr/HQ_M11-084_Voyager_Update.html#.Vztu1pMrJE4
  3. ↑ "On the trail of the meaning of life". Toronto Star. 28 November 1992. p. J.8.
  4. ↑ "Paid Notice: Deaths DRUYAN, PEARL A. (NEE GOLDSMITH)". NYTimes. May 1, 2005. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  5. ↑ Davidson, Keay; Sagan, Carl (1999-09-13). "Carl Sagan: A life". ISBN 9780471252863.
  6. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/02/books/best-sellers.html
  7. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/11/books/best-sellers-october-11-1992.html
  8. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/16/books/best-sellers-june-16-1996.html
  9. ↑ http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/159731/demon-haunted-world-by-carl-sagan/9780345409461/
  10. ↑ Sagan, Carl. Murmurs Of Earth : The Voyager Interstellar Record / Carl Sagan [... Et Al.]. n.p.: New York : Random House, c1978. ISBN 0-394-41047-5.
  11. ↑ "Voyager The Interstellar Mission The Golden Record". NASA JPL. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  12. ↑ Wall, Mike. "Voyager 1 Has Left Solar System". Space.com. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  13. ↑ "CSI Fellows and Staff". Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  14. ↑ Kaplan, Mat. "Press Release Cosmos 1, The World's First Solar Sail Spacecraft, Achieves Critical Milestone". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  15. ↑ "Breakthrough Initiatives Message Leaders". Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  16. ↑ "Breakthrough Initiatives Starshot Leaders".
  17. ↑ Glaser, Linda B. "Institute for Pale Blue Dots renamed in honor of Carl Sagan". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  18. ↑ "Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive PEACE, NUCLEAR ARMS". US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  19. ↑ "Press Release". Space Ref. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  20. ↑ Rogers, Ann. "Cosmic Africa explores Africa's astronomy". Science in Africa.
  21. ↑ Boyle, Alan. "Lost Dinosaurs Rediscovered in Egypt". MSNBC. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  22. ↑ "THE 25th ANNUAL NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARD NOMINEES" (PDF). Emmy Online. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  23. ↑ "Press Release Documentary chronicles the decades-long travels of Voyagers 1 and 2". Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) News.
  24. ↑ Vergano, Dan (2012-10-20). "Neil deGrasse Tyson tweets for science literacy". USA Today. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  25. ↑ "neiltyson". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2012-06-22
  26. ↑ Wallenstein, Andrew. "TCA: Fox aims for repeat-free sked". Variety. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  27. ↑ "About NORML, Ann Druyan". Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  28. ↑ "About NORML Foundation, Ann Druyan (President)". Archived from the original on Aug 13, 2010. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  29. ↑ "2007 Sundance Film Festival Jurors". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on 7 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
  30. ↑ Achenbach, Joel (1999). Captured by Aliens: the search for life and truth in a very large universe. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 95–6. ISBN 0-684-84856-2. Her interest in science came primarily from her interest in the philosophy of Karl Marx. ... Druyan herself had, at the time, rather vaporous standards of evidence for her many sundry beliefs (as she later acknowledged). She believed ... that Immanuel Velikovsky in the 1950s had correctly deduced the truth about the solar system. ... She believed in the ancient astronauts of Erich von Daniken.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ann Druyan.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.