Derek Muller facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Derek Muller |
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Veritasium YouTube channel logo
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Derek Muller at TED@Sydney, 2012
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| Personal information | |||||
| Born | Derek Alexander Muller 9 November 1982 Traralgon, Victoria, Australia |
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| Occupation | Science communicator | ||||
| Spouse(s) | Raquel Nuno | ||||
| YouTube information | |||||
| Years active | 2010–present | ||||
| Genre | Science, education | ||||
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| Subscriber and view counts updated as of May 13, 2025. | |||||
Derek Muller is a super cool science communicator and media personality from Australia. He's famous for his YouTube channel called Veritasium. On this channel, he makes awesome videos that explain science in fun and easy ways.
As of June 2025, his main channel, Veritasium, has over 18.2 million subscribers and more than 3.4 billion views! He helps people understand tricky science ideas.
Contents
Derek Muller's Early Life and School
Derek Muller was born in Traralgon, Australia, on November 9, 1982. His parents were from South Africa. When he was just 18 months old, his family moved to Vancouver, Canada.
He finished high school in West Vancouver in 2000. Then, in 2004, he graduated from Queen's University in Canada. He earned a degree in Engineering Physics.
After that, Derek moved to Australia. He first thought about studying filmmaking. But instead, he decided to get his Ph.D. in physics education research from the University of Sydney. He finished his Ph.D. in 2008. His research was about how to make multimedia (like videos) better for learning physics.
Derek Muller's Career Journey
Derek Muller has been a part of the ABC TV show Catalyst since 2008. He reports on science stories from all over the world.
While he was doing his Ph.D., he taught at a tutoring company. After finishing his degree in 2008, he became the full-time Science Head there. He left that job at the end of 2010.
In 2011, Derek started his YouTube channel, "Veritasium." This channel quickly became his main job. He also appeared on the Australian TV network Ten as the 'Why Guy' on the Breakfast show.
In May 2012, he gave a TEDxSydney talk. He talked about the ideas from his Ph.D. research. He also presented a documentary called Uranium – Twisting the Dragon's Tail in 2015. This film won the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism.
On September 21, 2015, Derek hosted the Google Science Fair Awards Celebration. He has also won other awards, like the Australian Webstream Award in 2013 for "Best Educational & Lifestyle Series."
In April 2017, he became a correspondent on the Netflix series Bill Nye Saves the World. Derek also presented a film called Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins in 2018. This film explored questions about vitamins and supplements.
Derek's work has been featured in popular science magazines and websites. These include Scientific American and Wired.
Veritasium: The Element of Truth
Derek Muller started his famous YouTube channel, Veritasium, in January 2011. The channel focuses on explaining science ideas that might seem confusing at first. He often starts by talking to people on the street to see what they already think.
His videos are very diverse. They include interviews with famous scientists, cool science experiments, and even songs. A special part of his channel is interviewing the public. This helps him find out what common misunderstandings people have about science.
The name Veritasium is a mix of two words. Veritas is a Latin word meaning "truth." The "-ium" ending is like the names of chemical elements. So, Veritasium means "element of truth." It's a clever way to say his channel is all about finding the truth in science.
The channel's logo looks like an element on the periodic table. It has the number "42.0." This number is a fun reference to the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In that book, 42 is "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything."
Other YouTube Channels by Derek Muller
In July 2012, Derek created a second YouTube channel called 2veritasium. On this channel, he shares videos about how he makes his main videos. He also shows behind-the-scenes footage and viewer reactions.
In 2017, he started another channel called Sciencium. This channel is all about new and old discoveries in science.
In 2021, Derek hosted a YouTube Original series called Pindrop. This show explored unusual places around the world using Google Earth. Only one episode was released before YouTube stopped making original shows in 2022.
Since April 21, 2023, Veritasium has been mostly owned by a media company called Electrify.
How Veritasium Videos Are Loved
Veritasium videos have received a lot of praise. Two early popular videos showed the physics of a falling Slinky toy.
In 2012, his video "Mission Possible: Graphene" won an award at the Science Online festival. It was even featured on Scientific American. Another video, which explained that the moon is not as close as many people think, was picked up by CBS News.
Derek once made a video about a special wind-powered car. This car could go faster than the wind! A physics professor from UCLA, Alexander Kusenko, didn't believe it was possible. He made a $10,000 bet with Derek. Famous scientists Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson even witnessed the bet!
Derek then made another video. He used a model cart to show that the car really could go faster than the wind. Professor Kusenko agreed he was wrong and paid the $10,000. Derek used that money for prizes in a science communication competition.
Derek Muller's Family Life
Derek Muller's parents, Anthony and Shirley, got married in South Africa. They then moved to Vancouver, Canada, where his two sisters, Kirstie and Marilouise, were born. The family moved to Australia, where Derek was born. His father had a job at a paper mill there. When Derek was 18 months old, the family moved back to Canada.
Derek later moved to Los Angeles, United States. There, he met Raquel Nuno, who was studying planetary science. They got married and now have four children. As of 2024, Derek and his family moved back to Australia.
See also
In Spanish: Derek Muller para niños
