Joe Palca

Joe Palca has been a science communicator for nearly four decades. From 1992-2022 he was a science correspondent for NPR, National Public Radio. Prior to that he worked for the news sections of Science and Nature. He also worked as a television producer.

He came to journalism from a science background, having received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz where he worked on human sleep physiology.

Palca has covered a range of science topics — everything from biomedical research to astronomy. He is founder of the NPR Scicommers program, a collective of science communicators. In 2021 the Scicimmers program moved to Boston University where it continues to thrive.

Palca has won numerous awards, several of which came with attractive certificates. In 2019, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

With Flora Lichtman, Palca is the co-author of Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us (Wiley, 2011).