Derek Muller facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Derek Muller |
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Veritasium YouTube channel logo
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Derek Muller at TED@Sydney, 2012
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| Born | Derek Alexander Muller 9 November 1982 Traralgon, Victoria, Australia |
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| Occupation | Science communicator | ||||
| Spouse(s) | Raquel Nuno | ||||
| YouTube information | |||||
| Years active | 2010–present | ||||
| Genre | Science, education | ||||
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| Subscriber and view counts updated as of 19 March 2024. | |||||
Derek Alexander Muller (born 9 November 1982) is a South African–Australian science communicator and media personality, best known for his YouTube channel Veritasium, which has over 16 million subscribers and 2.8 billion views as of October 2024.
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Early life and education
Muller was born to South African parents in Traralgon, Victoria, Australia. His family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, when he was 18 months old. In 2000, Muller graduated from West Vancouver Secondary School. In 2004, Muller graduated from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics.
Muller moved to Australia to study film-making; however, he instead enrolled for a Ph.D. in physics education research from the University of Sydney, which he completed in 2008 with a thesis: Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education.
Career
Muller has been listed as a team member of the ABC's television program Catalyst since 2008.
During his Ph.D. program, he taught at a tutoring company, where he became the full-time Science Head after completing his Ph.D. in 2008. He quit the job at the end of 2010.
In 2011, Muller created his YouTube channel "Veritasium" (see section below), which became his main source of livelihood within a few years.
Since 2011, Muller has continued to appear on Catalyst, reporting scientific stories from around the globe, and on Australian television network Ten as the 'Why Guy' on the Breakfast program. In May 2012, he gave a TEDxSydney talk using the subject of his thesis. He presented the documentary Uranium – Twisting the Dragon's Tail, which aired in July–August 2015 on several public television stations around the world and won the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism.
On 21 September 2015, Muller hosted the Google Science Fair Awards Celebration for that year.
Muller has also won the Australian Department of Innovation Nanotechnology Film Competition and the 2013 Australian Webstream Award for "Best Educational & Lifestyle Series".
Starting in April 2017, he appeared as a correspondent on the Netflix series Bill Nye Saves the World.
Muller presented in film Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins, a documentary by Genepool Productions, released in August 2018. The film answers questions about vitamins and the use of dietary vitamin supplements.
Muller's works have been featured in Scientific American, Wired, Gizmodo, and i09.
Veritasium and other YouTube channels
In January 2011, Muller created the educational science channel Veritasium on YouTube, the focus of which is "addressing counter-intuitive concepts in science, usually beginning by discussing ideas with members of the public". The videos range in style from interviews with experts, such as 2011 Physics Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt, to science experiments, dramatisations, songs, and – a hallmark of the channel – interviews with the public to uncover misconceptions about science. The name Veritasium is a combination of the Latin word for truth, Veritas, and the suffix common to many elements, -ium. This creates Veritasium, an "element of truth", a play on the popular phrase and a reference to chemical elements. In its logo, which has been a registered trade mark since 2016, the number "42.0" resembles an element on the periodic table. The number was chosen because it is "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything" in Douglas Adams' famous novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
In July 2012, Muller created a second YouTube channel, 2veritasium. Muller used the new platform to produce editorial videos that discuss such topics as filmmaking, showcasing behind-the-scenes footage, and for viewer reactions to popular Veritasium videos.
In 2017, Muller began uploading videos on his newest channel, Sciencium, which is dedicated to videos on recent and historical discoveries in science.
In 2021, Muller hosted Pindrop, a YouTube Original series exploring unusual places around the world, as seen from Google Earth. Only one episode exploring potash evaporation ponds in Utah was released before YouTube cancelled all original production in 2022.
Personal life and family
After Derek Muller's parents, Anthony and Shirley, married in South Africa, they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where his two sisters were born (Kirstie and Marilouise). The family moved to Australia, where he was born, after his father got a job in Traralgon at a pulp and paper mill. When he was 18 months old, the family moved back to Vancouver.
After Muller moved to Los Angeles, United States, he met Raquel Nuno, a planetary science Ph.D. student whom he married. They have three children (2021).
See also
In Spanish: Derek Muller para niños
