A 1951 graduate of Rahway High School, Carl Sagan was voted “Most Likely to Succeed” and went on to study astronomy at the University of Chicago and taught at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the American space program since its inception, serving as a consultant and adviser to NASA since the 1950s. For his work, Dr. Sagan received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award. He also received the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences, along with 22 honorary degrees from American colleges and universities. Sagan won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Dragons of Eden: Speculations of the Evolution of Human Intelligence, and was the author of many bestsellers, including Cosmos, which became an Emmy and Peabody award-winning television series. An exceptional teacher and scientist, Carl Sagan was no doubt one of the best known scientists of the Twentieth Century.