Derek Muller
Derek Muller is the creator of Veritasium, where experiments, questions and films turn physics, engineering and everyday puzzles into stories you can follow.
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Latest
Derek’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus his backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
- How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet2025 · Narrator and executive producer
YouTube - Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?2019 · Creator and host
YouTube - Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins2018 · Presenter and executive producer
Genepool Productions - Uranium: Twisting the Dragon’s Tail2015 · Presenter
PBS / SBS
Overview
- From
- Born in Australia; grew up in Canada.
- Work
- Science communicator, filmmaker and television presenter.
- Education
- Engineering Physics at Queen’s University; PhD in physics education research at the University of Sydney, completed in 2008.
- Started
- Launched Veritasium in 2011.
- Early breakout
- His falling-Slinky demonstrations brought counterintuitive physics to a wider audience.
Mini bio
Science and film.
Born in Australia and raised in Canada, Derek studied engineering physics at Queen’s University while making comedy sketches with friends. He moved to Australia intending to study filmmaking, then combined both interests in a University of Sydney PhD about teaching physics through video.
How Veritasium began.
After finishing his PhD in 2008, he taught physics before taking the leap into YouTube in 2011. His research supplied a lasting idea: a good explanation needs to address what viewers already misunderstand. Street interviews, experiments and surprising questions became the channel’s building blocks.
The early breakthrough.
The falling-Slinky videos became early successes. Their slow-motion footage showed the bottom hanging in place while the top fell, inviting viewers to question an apparently simple prediction. His own media page records coverage by the Toronto Star and appearances on QI.
Longer stories.
Derek also took science onto television, presenting Uranium: Twisting the Dragon’s Tail and Vitamania. His Veritasium work later included an investigation into PFAS pollution, which won a 2025 AAAS Kavli journalism award with collaborators Gregor Čavlović and Zoe Heron.
Creditschronological, newest first
Online films and projects
- 2025Elements of TruthVeritasium tabletop game project
- 2025How One Company Secretly Poisoned The PlanetNarrator and executive producer
- 2019Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?Creator and host
Film and television
- 2018Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of VitaminsPresenter and executive producer
- 2015Uranium: Twisting the Dragon’s TailPresenter
Awards
- 2025 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold AwardVideo In-Depth Reporting, shared with Gregor Čavlović and Zoe Heron for How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet.
- 2017 Streamy AwardScience or Education, for Veritasium.
- 2014 Sigma Xi honorary membershipRecognized for contributions to science communication.
- 2012 Cyberscreen Science Film FestivalWinner, as listed on Derek’s official awards page.
Quotes
I don’t always get it right the first time, but I’m always passionate about getting it right.Derek Muller, WIRED Autocomplete Interview
In his November 2022 interview, Derek reflected on revisiting explanations and testing his ideas.
Trivia
- Veritasium combines the Latin word veritas, meaning truth, with an element-like ending: an element of truth.
- In his 2022 WIRED interview, he said he even added thumbnail text using Final Cut Pro.
- He invented Snatoms, a molecular modelling kit whose atoms snap together magnetically.
Find Derek
Follow Derek’s experiments, films and questions on Veritasium.
Are you Derek Muller?
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