By Jessica Wedemeyer
8:16am PDT, Jul 10, 2017
Adam Savage turns 50 on July 15, 2017. The special effects expert — who's built models for installments in the "Star Wars," "The Matrix" and "Terminator" franchises — starred on "MythBusters" for more than a decade and is one of our favorite famous nerds. In honor of his big day, Wonderwall.com rounded up more stars who love science. Keep reading for Hollywood's biggest science nerds…
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We'd be remiss if we didn't mention Adam Savage's partner in crime and colleague in nerdiness, "MythBusters" co-star Jamie Hyneman. The special effects whiz — who helped design Wavecam, an aerial robotic camera system now used to broadcast sports around the globe — is beyond multi-talented. He earned a degree in Russian linguistics from Indiana University before his movie-making career took off.
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Karlie Kloss isn't just a supermodel. She's also a major computer nerd. In late 2013, she dished to Wonderwall.com about learning to code: "There's this thing called Code Academy on the computer, and it's really cool," she said. "It's this hobby that I have — very nerdy — but I really enjoy it. It's pretty cool to basically learn a new language and be able to understand the way the computer works and build websites, build things. It's a pretty cool skill set to have." Very nerdy, indeed!
Lisa Kudrow may have found fame portraying one of television's most endearing ditzes, but in real life, she's super-smart. The "Friends" star earned a biology degree from Vassar College and then joined the family business — headache research — with her dad, Dr. Lee Kudrow, a world-renowned headache specialist who founded a headache treatment clinic in California. ("When I took biology in high school, I was hooked," she said in 2010 while giving a commencement speech at her alma mater.) After graduation, Lisa studied hemispheric dominance and headache types with her father and was on her way to getting published when she decided to become an actress.
Tom Hanks really, really likes space. After he portrayed astronaut Jim Lovell in 1995's "Apollo 13" and produced the 1998 HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon," a dramatization of the Apollo space program, NASA honored the Oscar winner with the Public Service Award for his commitment to increasing the public's interest in space. An asteroid was even named after the multi-hyphenate, who serves on the National Space Society Board of Governors and was honored by the Space Foundation in 2006.
In 2013, Eva Longoria earned a master's degree in Chicano Studies from Cal State University, Northridge. Her thesis focused on Latinas and closing the gender divide in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math). The "Desperate Housewives" alum, who earned her undergraduate degree in kinesiology from Texas A&M University, has even launched STEM education programs through her Eva Longoria Foundation. In May 2017, she wrote in an essay published by Refinery29 that her foundation has helped more than 1,600 young women develop technology skills.
Mayim Bialik plays a neurobiologist on "The Big Bang Theory," and it's not much of a stretch for the former child star, who earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007. She founded the online community GrokNation, where she vlogs about a wide range of topics — from DNA to what it means to be a scientist and religious.
Danica McKellar graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics. The former child star co-authored the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem, a mathematical physics theorem. She then wrote a series of books about math for middle school- and high school-aged girls: "Math Doesn't Suck," "Kiss My Math," "Hot X: Algebra Exposed" and "Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape."
Natalie Portman earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard and has had two research papers that she co-authored published in legitimate scientific journals. "I'd rather be smart than a movie star," she once told the New York Post.
Ashton Kutcher studied biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa but dropped out early after he was discovered by a talent scout. "Science is always a great investment," the former teen heartthrob, who works more as a tech entrepreneur than an actor these days, wrote on Facebook in January 2017 in the caption of a video about the perks of investing in NASA.
"Hawaii Five-0" star Masi Oka graduated from Brown University in 1997 with a degree in computer science. Before he transitioned to acting, the "Heroes" alum worked in the research and development department at George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic visual effects and animation studio in San Francisco.
Dolph Lundgren reportedly earned a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney — and graduated first in his class. He received a Fulbright scholarship to MIT but abandoned his studies to pursue a career in Hollywood after he befriended Grace Jones.
Before Ken Jeong made his feature film debut in 2007's "Knocked Up," the funnyman studied zoology and medicine at Duke University and earned an M.D. from the University of North Carolina. According to Forbes, he completed his internal medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans and then practiced medicine at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Los Angeles. Laughter may be the best medicine, but Dr. Ken still maintains his medical license in spite of his success as an actor.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson used his expertise as a science communicator to launch a successful career in Hollywood. In addition to portraying fictionalized versions of himself on the big screen in "Zoolander 2" and "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and on a wide range of TV shows — from "The Big Bang Theory" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" to "Stargate: Atlantis" and "The Jim Gaffigan Show" — Neil produces and hosts "StarTalk" and has earned four Emmy nominations.
Rowan Atkinson earned a degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Newcastle University. The erstwhile Mr. Bean then conducted postgraduate research at Oxford. "I really enjoyed it," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. "It was what I wanted to do, and I suppose at the time I probably did think that if I didn't do something else, I'll be happy being an engineer."
Queen lead guitarist Brian May earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the Imperial College in London in 2006. He was 59 years old when he finished his studies after putting school on hold during the '70s when his band started to take off. He's now a visiting researcher at the university, where he works with the Imperial Astrophysics Group and researches "zodiacal dust" — whatever the heck that is.
The Offspring frontman Dexter Holland earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California in 2017. According to Rolling Stone, he published a "175-page dissertation on the molecular dynamics of HIV and general virus/host interactions" as part of his studies.
Cindy Crawford, who was the valedictorian of her high school class, received an academic scholarship to Northwestern University to study chemical engineering. She dropped out to pursue her modeling career.
Teri Hatcher studied mathematics and engineering at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. It's unclear whether the former cheerleader finished her studies.
