Derek Muller

Derek Alexander-Jones Muller (born 9 November 1982 ) is a science communicator and television personality, best known for his YouTube channel Veritasium, which has over 15 million subscribers as of March 2024.

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.

Muller has been listed as a team member of the ABC's television program Catalyst since 2008.

During his Ph.D. course, he also taught at a tutoring company, where he took a full-time job as Science Head after he completed the course 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 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 May 2012, he gave a TEDxSydney talk using the subject of his thesis.

In July 2012, Muller created a second YouTube channel, 2veritasium.

Muller used the new platform to produce editorial videos that discuss such topics as film making, showcasing behind-the-scenes footage, and for viewer reactions to popular Veritasium videos.

At 2012 Science Online, the video "Mission Possible: Graphene" won the Cyberscreen Science Film Festival and was therefore featured on Scientific American as the video of the week.

A video debunking the common misconception that the moon is closer than it is, was picked-up by CBS News.

After a video was posted in which Muller is shown driving a wind-powered car, equipped with a huge spinning propeller, faster than the wind, UCLA physics professor Alexander Kusenko disagreed with the claim that sailing downwind faster than wind was possible within the laws of physics, and made a bet with Muller $10,000 that he could not demonstrate that the apparent greater speed was not due to other, incidental factors.

Muller took up the bet, and the signing of a wager agreement by the parties was witnessed by Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

In a subsequent video, Muller demonstrated the effect with a model cart under conditions ruling out extraneous effects, but Muller did admit he could have done a better job at explaining the phenomenon in the first video.

Kusenko conceded the bet of $10,000.

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 he met Raquel Nuno, a planetary science Ph.D. student whom he married.

Muller has also won the Australian Department of Innovation Nanotechnology Film Competition and the 2013 Australian Webstream Award for "Best Educational & Lifestyle Series".

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.

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 as 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.

Starting in April 2017, he appeared as a correspondent on the Netflix series Bill Nye Saves the World.

In 2017, Muller began uploading videos on his newest channel, Sciencium, which is dedicated to videos on recent and historical discoveries in science.

Veritasium videos have received critical acclaim.

Two early successful Veritasium videos demonstrate the physics of a falling Slinky toy.

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.