Among the Academies: Capturing the Cosmos

This summer, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory launched its 10-year astronomical survey to create the most comprehensive, cinematic record of the universe. Equipped with the largest digital camera ever built, this observatory, located in northern Chile, can capture in a single image an area 45 times the size of the moon. By tracking the night sky over 10 years, researchers hope to map the solar system and Milky Way galaxy in unprecedented detail, learn more about the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and advance science in ways we can’t even predict.   

While thousands of people played a part in making the Rubin Observatory a reality, Tony Tyson, a distinguished research professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, played a formative role, acting initially as the facility’s founding director and now its chief scientist. 

Over three decades, Tyson developed the observational techniques and technologies underlying the facility’s telescope and its camera, wrote proposal after proposal arguing for its scientific importance, and networked to secure critical funding for its construction, and much more.

In 1997, he was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Now, with decades of work finally coming to fruition, Tyson is in the spotlight. Last year, he was listed by Nature as one of 10 people who shaped science in 2025. More recently, TIME named him to the 2026 TIME100, the publication’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

UC Davis Magazine sat down with Tyson for a Q&A about the origins of his interest in the cosmos, his professional background before joining UC Davis, his future goals and more.

Read the full Q&A on the UC Davis Magazine website.