An element of truth

With an aptitude for science and a passion for creativity, Derek Muller (PhD '08) was always destined to do something different. "I enjoyed performing on stage and making videos, but I was also very good at science," he says. "I had all this capability in certain areas, but being a creative felt like a roll of the dice." Rather than choosing one avenue over another, he combined his interests by taking an unconventional approach to both professions. As a science-based YouTuber, Derek brought his beloved subject to the masses in 2011 through his channel, Veritasium. The pioneering learning platform quickly found its audience, with students eager to learn, and educators and researchers inspired to teach their classes in a new and engaging way. Now, with more ​than ​2.7 billion views, Veritasium is changing the way we learn about science, the world, and ourselves. "I never dreamt it would get this far," Derek says. "I just wanted to make videos that allowed me to be the good science teacher for those who never had a good science teacher."

Science on screen

Born in Australia to South African parents, Derek moved with his family to Canada before his second birthday, where he completed his schooling and graduated from Queen's University in Ontario with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics. During this time, he also completed film production courses during summer breaks. "I bought a camera, and was making these comedy skits with my engineering buddies," Derek recalls. "We had a server that sat in the closet of our share house​ that enabled us to host our own website before the days of social media.​ We would go around campus putting up stickers about it."

Derek then moved to Australia with the intention of studying filmmaking. "I had no industry experience, but wanted to create something that felt meaningful to me," he says. He began by enrolling in a PhD in physics at the University of Sydney.

Derek's thesis, titled Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education, saw him question the ways in which the medium of video can be used to transmit knowledge and educate people about science. Collaborating with first-year physics students, he studied how their test scores differed after watching his teaching videos. The techniques he used for these tests laid the groundwork for his future teaching methods on YouTube.

"No one had asked these fundamental questions about what you really need to make a video on physics effective for learning," Derek explains. "I wanted to satisfy both of my interests, and this led to a really positive outcome once the PhD was done. It influenced how I approached making videos for people on the internet."

Derek believes his PhD and science background gave his earliest videos a point of difference, enabling them to cut through to global audiences. "I was thinking about making films about science, and how to do that effectively," he explains. "Having that experience elevated the videos and made them different from what everyone else was doing."

Leap of faith

Following the completion of his PhD in 2008, Derek's understanding of film combined with his love of science led to a career pivot that would profoundly change his life and the lives of many others. "My whole life I'd said I want to be a filmmaker, but I'd been too terrified," he says. Driven by the desire to share his knowledge of science with a global audience, Derek put his fears aside and took a prescient first step towards online video creation. "YouTube was still nascent in those days, but it was clear something was happening," he says. "It was a real leap. I had a great job that I enjoyed, teaching physics at a tutoring company, and I gave it all up to make YouTube videos before that was a thing. My friends thought I was nuts!"

Derek's videos quickly garnered attention for their ability to transform science into an approachable and engaging subject for all audiences. Before long, his channel, Veritasium, had millions of subscribers throughout the world. "The numbers got unfathomable pretty fast," he says. "But it's more than just seeing the numbers - I've always found it most meaningful when people come up to me in the street and tell me they love what I'm doing. That's when it really hits home." ​​Veritasium currently boasts almost 3 billion views.

Derek believes that the key to success in his field is to pre-empt his viewers' thought processes. "One of the things that came out of the PhD was how important it is to think about the misconceptions people might have going in," he says. "If you don't tap in to them, it's easy for people to watch a video and think they're understanding it but it's really just reinforcing what they thought beforehand." With this in mind, Derek's content focuses on the way in which science enables a search for the truth. "The world is subtle, and given the things we observe, it's easy to draw the wrong conclusions," he explains. "This insight allowed me to make videos that powerfully changed people's minds and got people talking."

Truth-seeking mission

While Derek's work has seen him host numerous award-winning documentaries and television series, including Catalyst and The Why Guy, and share the stage with the world's greatest minds, including Bill Gates, Chris Hatfield and Richard Dawkins, it is his ability to make a true impact that fills him with the greatest sense of accomplishment. "I have this core belief that people live better, happier lives if they're in accordance with the way the world works, rather than the way it appears," he explains. "If you know how things work, you'll make better decisions and have a better life experience." This is why, at its deepest level, Derek's work aims to provide every viewer with a truth-seeking compass that they can apply to their own lives. "There's an undercurrent in each video, which is the question, 'How do you go about figuring things out - what's true and what's not?'" he says. "We jump to conclusions and misinterpret things all the time, and I really feel like it's this blanket rule - if you want to know anything about anything, including ourselves, you have to do it with science."

As for what inspires Derek's quest for truth, he shares a simple yet powerful guiding quote from fellow physicist Richard Feynman. "He says, ​​'The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool'. That's the thing - science is the way of not fooling yourself."

Derek Muller's career-change tips

• Listen to your gut - If something doesn't feel like it's working for you, change - do something else.

• Experiment - Try lots of different things, and get a sense of where your efforts are resonating with the world. Where do you get positive feedback? Whatever it is, double down on that and play to your strengths.

• Always be learning stuff - Continue to learn new skills, and be prepared to implement them in the future.

Written by Alana Wulff for Sydney Alumni Magazine. Photography by Stefanie Zingsheim.