Rob Stein
Rob Stein is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR's science desk.
An award-winning science journalist with more than 30 years of experience, Stein mostly covers health and medicine. He tends to focus on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. He tracks genetics, stem cells, cancer research, women's health issues, and other science, medical, and health policy news.
Before NPR, Stein worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper's science editor and then as a national health reporter. Earlier in his career, Stein spent about four years as an editor at NPR's science desk. Before that, he was a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor of the international wire service in Washington.
Stein's work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. He was twice part of NPR teams that won Peabody Awards.
Stein frequently represents NPR, speaking at universities, international meetings and other venues, including the University of Cambridge in Britain, the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, and the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.
Stein is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed a journalism fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, a program in science and religion at the University of Cambridge, and a summer science writer's workshop at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.
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A new NPR/Harvard analysis finds most states' testing efforts still fall far short of what's needed to beat back the pandemic. Find out how your state is doing. -
CDC chief Robert Redfield says that earlier testing for the coronavirus would have been like "looking for a needle in a haystack." But other health experts dispute his assertion.
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We're in shutdown mode for now, but what comes next? Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is working on a plan to safely reopen the country.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging Americans to prepare for the possibility of more aggressive measures to stop the new coronavirus in the United States.
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A New Orleans law professor and a New Jersey financial analyst are waiting for their stints in the first federal quarantine in a half-century to end. Here's glimpse of their daily lives.
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Hundreds of American travelers returned from Wuhan, China and are now under federal quarantine for two weeks. Some are happy to be back in the U.S., but wish they weren't confined in military bases.
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He Jiankui, who shocked the world by asserting he had genetically edited twin girls, faced growing criticism from other researchers as he spoke at a scientific conference in Hong Kong.
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Duke University researchers say some patients with brain cancer survived long after receiving treatment with a weakened poliovirus. But the response rate was limited and there were side effects.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants more flexibility in deciding whom to quarantine and why. But critics say the changes the agency has proposed raise civil liberties questions.
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Medications for heartburn called proton pump inhibitors are linked to a higher risk for chronic kidney disease, according to a study. It's the latest in a growing list of worries with these drugs.
