Curtis Brainard

Curtis Brainard has covered science, environment, and medical news for the Columbia Journalism Review since 2006. In January 2008, he launched The Observatory, CJR's first full time department dedicated to critically analyzing science coverage in the media as well as the opportunities and challenges facing science journalists today.

News outlets from NPR to Al-Jazeera English, as well as research organizations such as the Reuters Institute at Oxford University and the U.K.’s Science Media Centre, have interviewed Brainard about the state of science journalism and the coverage of particular stories. He has also been invited to speak to the World Conference of Science Journalists, the National Association of Science Writers, the International Press Institute, the Knight Science Journalism Fellows at MIT, the Association of Environmental Grantmakers, and National Center for Atmospheric Research, among others.

Brainard has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism from Columbia University, where his research involved studying fossil corals to determine historic fluctuations in cosmic radiation and atmospheric carbon.