Toby Hendy | |
|---|---|
%2c_November_2019.jpg) Hendy in November 2019 | |
| Born | (1995-07-11)11 July 1995 (age 30) |
| Education | |
| Occupations | |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2011–present |
| Genres | |
| Subscribers | 1.32 million |
| Views | 188 million |
| Last updated: 21 October 2025 | |
| Website | tobyhendy |
Toby Hendy (born 11 July 1995), known online asTibees/ˈtɪbiːz/, is a New Zealandscience communicator andYouTuber who focuses on educational content relating tophysics,mathematics andastronomy. She is based in Australia.[1][2]
Hendy attendedKatikati College in theBay of Plenty, New Zealand. In 2011, she was selected by theRoyal Society of New Zealand as one of two national delegates to attend the USA International Space Camp inHuntsville, Alabama.[3] In 2012, she won first place in the secondary school category of the NZ Eureka Awards for Science Communication.[4]
Hendy obtained aBachelor of Science, majoring in Physics and Mathematics, at theUniversity of Canterbury. She was awarded an Aurora Astronomy Scholarship that enabled her to take an overseas trip to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Carnegie Observatory,UCLA, Macdonald Observatory Texas,University of British Columbia, NRC Observatory Victoria and CHFT Hawaii.[5]
Hendy went on to do herHonours year at theAustralian National University inCanberra. In 2017, Hendy started a PhD at ANU focusing on using nanoindentation to examine the mechanical response of plant cells to applied pressure.[6] She was awarded a Westpac Future Leader's Scholarship.[7] During her time as a PhD student she placed runner-up in the Australian national finals of the FameLab science communication competition for her presentation 'Poking Plants'.[8] Her honours thesis title was ‘Examining the mechanical response ofArabidopsis thaliana using nanoindentation and Finite Element Modelling’, where she received class honours with a grade 93/100 for her thesis.[9] In 2018, Hendy discontinued her PhD studies to pursue YouTube full-time.[10]
Hendy has been uploading videos to YouTube since high school.[10] In August 2020, Hendy announced that she was working on a mathematical stop-motion short filmFinding X, supported by the Screen Australia Skip Ahead initiative.[11] It was released in January 2022.[12]
In 2023, Hendy appeared on season 5 of the travel competition showJet Lag: The Game, which was filmed in New Zealand.[13] She returned for season 10, which was released in 2024 and filmed in Australia, and for season 15, filmed in Europe.[14]
In 2025 theInternational Astronomical Union'sMinor Planet Center gaveasteroid 22955 the name Tibees, Hendy's nickname, in honor of her science communication outreach.[15]
In May 2025, Hendy announced that she had written a book,A Guide To Making Friends in the Fourth Dimension, intended for release in July 2025.[16]