If you’re like me, you’ll resort to drastic measures come midterm time to learn all of the material you missed out on while building snow forts as quickly as possible. This way, even if you don’t learn all that much, it makes for some pretty interesting ways to procrastinate. An all-time favourite procrastination favorite of mine is still watching old Bill Nye the Science Guy clips on youtube by far – humour and educational? How can you lose?! We all remember the days back in elementary school when the teacher didn’t really feel like doing much of anything, never mind teaching, so out came the massive TV and VCR combo and everyone knew it was Bill Nye time. His infamous show ran from 1993-1997 but is still being played in elementary classrooms and watched online today by the young and old. The classic combination of dorky humour and basic educational science was as accurate a test for a future engineering student as any IQ test on the market. Quite frankly, I’m surprised there’s not a “Rate Bill Nye on a scale of 1 to 10” question on the Waterloo admissions form, with 11 being the correct answer. The most mind-blowing part of everyone’s favorite childhood science superhero – Bill Nye is an engineer too!
Born William Sanford Nye in Washington D.C. in 1955, his mother was a codebreaker during World War Two and his father was a sundial manufacturer. After highschool, he studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University and graduated in 1977. Before his big TV days, he started off his career working at Boeing where he developed a hydraulic pressure resonance surpressor used in the 747, and also starred in training films on the side. True story. He later worked as a consultant in the aeronautics industry, and applied to NASA every few years to be an astronaut, but always got turned down.
Nye started in the entertainment industry with a local sketch comedy show in Seattle called Almost Live! He corrected the host of the show when they tried to pronounce ‘gigawatt’ as ‘jigowatt’, to which the host replied, “Who do you think you are – Bill Nye the Science Guy?” Needless to say, the name stuck both on the show and for years to come in Nye’s career.
Following his Almost Live! stint, Nye appeared on the live-action educational segments of Back to the Future: The Animated Series from 1992-1993 where he had a non-speaking role as an assistant to Dr. Emmett Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd. Nye’s character would demonstrate science with Lloyd’s voice-over. It was the success and popularity of these segments that prompted the creation of the much loved Bill Nye the Science Guy that we all know. Although it was targeted for a pre-teen audience, it became rapidly popular in all age groups. Nye also wrote several books under the Bill Nye character and he also produced the show during its 4 year run, which was filmed in Seattle.
Following the show, Nye remained active in the promotion of science and technology within the entertainment industry. He created a 13 episode series for PBS entitled Through the Eyes of Nye, which was targeted at an audience slightly older than that of his first show. During which, he discussed relevant current hot topics such as genetically engineered food, global warming and race. He’s also made a host of television and movie appearances since then, mainly as his Bill Nye persona, including the VH1 show America’s Most Smartest Model and The Doctor Oz Show.
In true engineering fashion, he’s also returned to work as an engineer as well, just for fun. In the early 2000’s, he assisted in the development of a small sundial that was included in the Mars Exploration Rover, known as MarsDial. The device had small colour panels used for the purposes of colour calibration in images, as well as a sundial that was used to keep track of time. From 2005 to 2010 he was the vice president of The Planetary Society, an organization who advocates space science research and exploration. He became the organization’s second executive director in 2010. He also holds several United States patents, including one for a magnifying glass created by filling a plastic bag with water, and another for ballet shoes.
Although it’s true that engineers influence the lives of many, no one drives that point home quite like Bill Nye. You’d be hard pressed to find at least one person who hasn’t at least heard of the infamous science guy, or seen at least one of his shows – and this is over 10 years since his shows have been off the air! My great recommendation for hell week this year is to pay some tribute to one of the world’s most favorite engineer and procrastinate with an episode’s of everyone’s favorite science guy – Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!
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