Scott Manley
Quick Facts
Capricorn
Biography
Scott Manley (born 31 December 1972) is a Scottish YouTube personality, gamer, programmer, astrophysicist and DJ. On his YouTube channel, he plays space-themed video games, in particular Kerbal Space Program, while he explains much of the science involved. He also makes videos discussing other science-related topics and news, mainly concerning up-to-date rocket science developments. He uses his scientific background to help teach science while playing games.
He is known among his followers as the "astronogamer", as he is one of the few YouTubers blending both video games and science, and he is popular in the niche community of space enthusiasts and gamers.
Education and career
While studying at the University of Glasgow, Manley received a BSc (1990–1994) in physics and astronomy, and an MSc (1994–1995) in computational physics a year later.
In 2002, he worked as an engineer for Napster. Later, from 2002 up until 2004, he worked as a research engineer for Qualys. From 2004 to 2009, he worked as a security architect in imeem, where he developed and maintained audio and video upload, transcoding, fingerprinting system among other things.
Manley's current employment is at Apple Inc. He joined Topsy Labs in 2009 and in 2013 Topsy was acquired by Apple.
Notable collaborations
Author Anne McCaffrey consulted with Manley on the effects of asteroid impacts while writing The Skies of Pern, determining the orbit of the comet and providing advice on how the event should be portrayed.
Manley is one of the original participants of Asteroid Day and was a keynote speaker at the launch in 2015 as well as hosting their regular "Asteroid Update" segments.
He is credited as a consultant on the upcoming movie Stowaway directed by Joe Penna, according to Joe's appearance on Corridor Cast he would go beyond the immediate needs of the script and 'did the math so it would be ready'.
Awards and honors
In recognition for his work as a popular science communicator, asteroid 33434 Scottmanley was named after him. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 18 May 2019 (M.P.C. 114954). The outer main-belt asteroid was discovered by astronomers with the OCA–DLR Asteroid Survey in 1999. It is a member of the stony Koronis family and measures approximately 4.6 kilometers in diameter.
