Keeping His Eyes On The Stars; Aim High: Astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson's dedication put him on the fast track.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: NANCY GONDO

Neil de Grasse Tyson loved going to the rooftop of Skyview Apartments, the Bronx building he grew up in, to gaze up at the star-lit sky. Because of the city lights around him, the youngster thought only a dozen stars were in the universe.

A trip to the Hayden Planetarium at Manhattan's Museum of Natural History in 1966 proved him wrong. He took one look at the tens of thousands of stars projected across the planetarium dome -- and from then on he was hooked on astrophysics.

"The study of the universe would be my career, and no force on Earth would stop me," he wrote in "The Sky Is Not the Limit." "I was just 9 years old, but I now had an answer for that perennially annoying question all adults ask: "What do you want to be when you grow up?' "

Now one of the country's leading astrophysicists, he's also been director of the Hayden Planetarium since 1996. Tyson fondly recalls certificates signed by the director he received as a kid when he completed classes there. In fact, he considers it one of the biggest perks of his job.

"I see it as a real honor and privilege and duty to serve others in their ambition to become scientists the way scientists and educators served my interest when I was young," he told Nova, which produces science programming for the Public Broadcasting Service, in a 2004 interview.

His work has been so influential, President George Bush appointed him in 2001 to serve on a commission to study the future of the U.S. aerospace industry. Three years later Bush named Tyson to a commission to help implement the U.S. Space Exploration Policy.