Welcome to the Evolving Folks Project’s ‘Evolved Man of the Week’ profiles. Each week, we highlight an individual who embodies what it means to be an evolved man, famous and not-so-famous alike. The world needs to know their stories and deeds. This week’s honor goes to the former Division I athlete, author, and astrophysicist Dakotah Tyler.
As a kid, Dakotah Tyler loved football and thought he would have a future in sports. In high school, he dreamed of playing football, built a large following, and joined the University of Kentucky team. Football was a big part of who he was, but a ligament injury in his junior year ended his athletic career. He spent his senior year recovering and never played football for Kentucky again. After he recovered, Tyler became interested in science. While he was healing, he watched astronomy documentaries and found a new passion.
The documentaries made him want to learn more about the universe and changed his outlook on life. He found a new interest that gave him purpose. Even though he wasn’t sure who he was without sports, he felt pulled toward the stars and started researching how to get involved in the study of the cosmos.
Tyler graduated from Kentucky in 2013 with a degree in community and organizational leadership. He soon realized he needed a different background to get into a graduate physics program, so he worked hard to make that change. He faced challenges along the way, but he remained grateful for a fresh start. He entered a field he knew little about and sought support and advice to get through the tough parts of studying physics.
Fortunately, Rachel Fernandez, his student mentor, and the physics department helped him. With their support, Tyler got advice on applying to graduate school and joined a research group that studied stars surrounded by disks of material.
While working on his research, he found out about UCLA’s physics program. Since he had family in Cincinnati, he realized he could pay in-state tuition for graduate school. He moved to Cincinnati, spent a year at Cincinnati State, and then became a physics major at UCLA, focusing on astronomy.
UC’s Physics Department professors had a big impact on his time as a Bearcat. After that, Tyler worked as a teaching assistant at UCLA and held a research position at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 2019, after earning degrees in astrophysics and physics, he went to Maryland to study Mars’s atmosphere at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He later earned a master’s in astrophysics at UCLA.
He said his time as a Bearcat helped him get into UCLA’s astrophysics program. The most important lesson he learned at UC came from moments when he felt he wasn’t good enough. Even though he struggled with classes like differential equations and electromagnetism, he kept moving forward.
Dakotah Tyler went from playing Division I college football to studying the universe. He earned his PhD in astronomy and astrophysics at UCLA, where he researched exoplanets and changes in planetary systems using some of the world’s most advanced telescopes. He has published his work in top astrophysics journals and worked with teams at Caltech, NASA, and Harvard. Beyond his academic work, he helps make science easy to understand through public talks, media interviews, and online content. As a dedicated writer and teacher, he brings together science, technology, and education, and encourages others to be curious, resilient, and eager to learn.
Tyler did research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He cares deeply about astronomy and about supporting Black and non-traditional students. He serves on the leadership team for Black in Astro (#BlackInAstro). Because of his own experiences, Tyler encourages students from all backgrounds to get involved in science.
Here is Dakotah Tyler on encouraging others to enter the science field and feeling intimidated by the curriculum.
“I would encourage people to look into the sciences in general. The idea of science, and the word ‘math,’ can be intimidating when you don’t have a background in them. That was literally me. There’s a science to anything.”
I found Dakotah Tyler on TikTok and immediately started following him. His story shows the human ability to persevere despite challenges. He’s a man who wasn’t afraid to ask for help and was willing to put aside his ego to get into an entirely new field. It shows a person willing to step out of his comfort zone to better himself. Tyler went from the gridiron to studying the nature of reality. He’s paying it forward by being a science educator and public speaker. At the Evolving Folks Project, we hope his story continues to inspire others to follow their passions and interests. Today we honor Dakotah Tyler as our Evovled Man of the Week.
