From Hardscrabble Upbringing to Renowned Astrophysicist

Nerdist Podcast Features Florida Tech’s Hakeem Oluseyi

Hakeem Oluseyi spent his childhood moving from rough neighborhoods of Los Angeles, New Orleans and Houston before his mother moved him to rural Mississippi when he was a teenager.

Though clearly smart and at the head of his class, Oluseyi’s shaky early education coupled with moments of self doubt made his road to astrophysicist, inventor and researcher a difficult one.

The Nerdist podcast hosted by Chris Hardwick, recently caught up with Oluseyi, a Florida Tech associate professor currently on a research sabbatical at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to talk about his love of cosmology, research, his new Science Channel program and being a science communicator.

Oluseyi’s story is fascinating, adversarial and ultimately triumphant. Listen here: