Ann Druyan | |
|---|---|
 Druyan in 2017 | |
| Born | (1949-06-13)June 13, 1949 (age 76) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Known for | Author,activist,producer |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingSasha |
Ann Druyan (/driːˈæn/dree-ANN;[1] born June 13, 1949) is an American documentary producer and director specializing in the communication of science. She co-wrote the 1980PBSdocumentary seriesCosmos, hosted byCarl Sagan, whom she married in 1981. She is the creator, producer, and writer of the 2014 sequel,Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and its sequel series,Cosmos: Possible Worlds, as well as the book of the same name. She directed episodes of both series.
In the late 1970s, she became the creative director of NASA'sVoyager Interstellar Message Project, which produced the golden discs affixed to both theVoyager 1 andVoyager 2 spacecraft.[2] She also published a novel,A Famous Broken Heart, in 1977, and later co-wrote several best selling non-fiction books with Sagan.
Ann Druyan was born inQueens, New York, the daughter of Pearl A. (née Goldsmith) and Harry Druyan, who co-owned a knitwear firm.[3][4][5] Her family was Jewish.[6]
Druyan's early interest in math and science was, in her word, "derailed" when a junior high-school teacher ridiculed a question she asked about the universality ofπ. "I raised my hand and said, 'You mean this applies to every circle in the universe?', and the teacher told me not to ask stupid questions. And there I was having this religious experience, and she made me feel like such a fool. I was completely flummoxed from then on until after college." Druyan characterized her three years atNew York University as "disastrous", and it was only after she left school without graduating that she discovered thepre-Socratic philosophers and began educating herself, thus leading to a renewed interest in science.[7]
In the late 1970s, Druyan became the creative director of NASA'sVoyager Interstellar Message Project.[2] As creative director, Druyan worked with a team to design a complex message, including music and images, for possible alien civilizations. These golden phonograph records affixed to theVoyager 1 andVoyager 2 spacecraft are now beyond the outermost planets of theSolar System, andVoyager 1 has entered interstellar space. Both records have a projected shelf life of one billion years.[8][9]
Druyan's role on the project was discussed on the July 8, 2018, 60 Minutes segment "The Little Spacecraft That Could".[10] In the segment, Druyan explained her insistence that Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" be included on the Golden Record, saying: "...Johnny B. Goode, rock and roll, was the music of motion, of moving, getting to someplace you've never been before, and the odds are against you, but you want to go. That was Voyager." The segment also discussed Sagan's suggestion, in 1990, thatVoyager 1 turn its cameras back towards Earth to take a series of photographs showing the planets of theSolar System. The shots, showing Earth from a distance of 3.7 billion miles as a small point of bluish light, became the basis for Sagan's famous "Pale Blue Dot" passage, first published inPale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994).
During that time, Druyan also co-wrote (withCarl Sagan andSteven Soter) the 1980PBSdocumentary seriesCosmos, hosted by Carl Sagan. The thirteen-part series covered a wide range of scientific subjects, including theorigin of life and a perspective of humans place in the universe. It was highly acclaimed, and became the most widely watched series in the history of Americanpublic television at that time. The series won twoEmmys and aPeabody Award, and has since been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people.[11][12] Abook was also published to accompany the series. As of 2009[update], it is still the most widely watched PBS series in the world.[13] Several revised versions of the series were later broadcast; one version, telecast after Sagan's death, opens with Druyan paying tribute to her late husband and the impact ofCosmos over the years.
Druyan wrote and produced the 1987PBSNOVA episode "Confessions of a Weaponeer" on the life ofPresident Eisenhower's Science AdvisorGeorge Kistiakowsky.[14]
In 2000, Druyan, together with Steve Soter, co-wrotePassport to the Universe, the inaugural planetarium show for the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Natural History Museum's Hayden Planetarium. The attraction is narrated by Tom Hanks.[15] Druyan and Soter also co-wroteThe Search for Life: Are We Alone, narrated by Harrison Ford, which also debuted at the Hayden's Rose Center.[16]
In 2000, Druyan co-founded Cosmos Studios, Inc, withJoseph Firmage.[17] As CEO of Cosmos Studios, Druyan produces science-based entertainment for all media. In addition toCosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, Cosmos Studios has producedCosmic Africa,[18]Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt,[19] and theEmmy-nominated[20] documentaryCosmic Journey: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message.[21] In 2009, she distributed a series ofpodcasts calledAt Home in the Cosmos with Annie Druyan, in which she described her works, the life of her husband,Carl Sagan, and their marriage.
Druyan is credited, with Carl Sagan, as the co-creator and co-producer of the 1997 feature filmContact.[22]
In 2011, it was announced that Druyan would executive produce, co-write, and be one of the episodic directors for a sequel toCosmos: A Personal Voyage, to be calledCosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which began airing in March 2014.[23][24] Episodes premiered onFox and also aired onNational Geographic Channel on the following night.[25] At the time of its release, Fox gave the series the largest global rollout of a television series ever, debuting it in 180 countries. The premiere episode was shown across nine of Fox's cable properties in addition to the broadcast network in a "roadblock" style premiere. The series went on to become the most-watched series ever for National Geographic Channel International, with at least some part of the 13-episode series watched by 135 million people, including 45 million in the U.S.[26]
In March 2020, a third season ofCosmos, namedCosmos: Possible Worlds, for which Druyan was executive producer, writer, and director, premiered onNational Geographic. Druyan also said: "I very much have season four in mind, and I know what it's going to be. And I even know some of the stories that I want to tell in it."[27]
Druyan's first novel,A Famous Broken Heart, was published in 1977.[28]
Druyan co-wrote sixNew York Times bestsellers with Carl Sagan, including:Comet,[29]Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,[30] andThe Demon-Haunted World.[31][32] She is co-author, along with Carl Sagan,F. D. Drake,Timothy Ferris,Jon Lomberg andLinda Salzman Sagan, ofMurmurs Of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record.[33] She also wrote the updated introduction to Sagan's bookThe Cosmic Connection and the epilogue ofBillions and Billions. She wrote the introduction to, and editedThe Varieties of Scientific Experience, published from Sagan's 1985Gifford lectures.
In February 2020, Druyan publishedCosmos: Possible Worlds,[34] a companion volume tothe television series of the same name, which premiered in March 2020.[27]
Druyan is a fellow of theCommittee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP).[35]
Druyan served as program director of the first solar-sail deep-space mission,Cosmos 1, launched on a Russian ICBM in 2005.[36]
Druyan is involved in multipleBreakthrough Initiatives. WithFrank Drake, Druyan is the co-chair ofBreakthrough Message[37] and also a member ofBreakthrough Starshot.[38]
She is a member of the advisory board of TheCarl Sagan Institute.[39]
Druyan has for many years been a vocal advocate for nuclear disarmament. She was arrested three times at theMercury, Nevada nuclear test site during Mikhail Gorbachev's unilateral moratorium on underground nuclear testing, with which President Ronald Reagan did not cooperate. This included an arrest in June 1986, when she crossed a white painted line indicating the test site's boundary. Sagan, who attended the same protest with Druyan, was not arrested.[40]
In the early 1990s, Druyan worked with Sagan and then-Senator Al Gore Jr. and a host of religious and scientific leaders to bring the scientific and religious worlds together in a unified effort to preserve the environment, resulting in theDeclaration of the 'Mission to Washington'.[41]
She was a founding director of the Children's Health Fund until the spring of 2004, a project that provides mobile pediatric care to homeless and disadvantaged children in more than half a dozen cities. She is currently a member of their advisory board.[42]
She has been on the board of directors of theNational Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for over 10 years and was its president from 2006 to 2010.[43][44]
An asteroid discovered in 1988 was named in Druyan's honor by its discovererEleanor F. Helin. In a 2020 interview withSkeptical Inquirer, Druyan discussed4970 Druyan and the asteroid named after her late husband, saying that4970 Druyan is in a "wedding ring orbit" around the Sun with2709 Sagan. Druyan was presented with a plaque on Sagan's sixtieth birthday, which is inscribed: "Asteroid 2709 Sagan in eternal companion orbit with asteroid 4970 Druyan, symbolic of their love and admiration for each other."[27]
In November 2006, Druyan was a speaker at "Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival".
In January 2007, she was a juror at the2007 Sundance Film Festival, responsible for selecting the winner of theAlfred P. Sloan Prize for films about science and technology.[45]
In November 2007, Druyan was awarded the title of "Humanist Laureate" by the International Academy of Humanism.[46]
In October 2019, theCenter for Inquiry West opened theCarl Sagan–Ann Druyan Theater in Los Angeles.[47]
In an interview withJoel Achenbach ofThe Washington Post, Druyan said that her early interest in science stemmed from a fascination withKarl Marx. Achenbach commented that "She had, at the time, rather vaporous standards of evidence", a reference to her belief in theancient astronauts ofErich von Däniken and the theories ofImmanuel Velikovsky pertaining to the solar system.[48]
Concerning the death of her husband she stated:[49]
When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me—it still sometimes happens—and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in anafterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl.
Druyan and Sagan's working and resulting romantic relationship has been the subject of numerous treatments in popular culture, including theRadiolab episode "Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan's Ultimate Mix Tape",[50] a segment of the Comedy Central programDrunk History's episode "Space",[51] and the song "Sounds of Earth" byJim Moray. The asteroid4970 Druyan, which is in a companion orbit with asteroid2709 Sagan named after Druyan's late husband, is named after Druyan.[52][27] In 2015, it was announced that Warner Brothers was in development on a drama about Sagan and Druyan's relationship, to be produced by producer Lynda Obst and Druyan.[53]
In 2020, Sagan and Druyan's daughterSasha Sagan released a bookFor Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in our Unlikely World, which discusses life with her parents and her father's death when she was fourteen years old.[54]
Druyan also gave Sasha a recurring role inCosmos: Possible Worlds, where she played her own grandmother, including in the episodeMan of a Trillion Worlds, which featured the life of Carl Sagan.[27]
Pearl Harry Druyan
{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)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.
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