Robert Krulwich

A three-time Emmy Award-winner, he has explored the structure of DNA with a banana; on radio he created an Italian opera, “Ratto Interesso,” to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; and he has pioneered the use of new animation on ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight to illustrate such things as price fluctuations in the housing market.

A Correspondent for National Public Radio, Krulwich regularly appears on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He is co-host of “Radio Lab,”a nationally distributed radio series that explores new developments in science for people who are curious but not usually drawn to science shows. “There’s nothing like it on the radio,” says Ira Glass of This American Life, “It’s an act of crazy genius.”

Robert Krulwich was fantastic! He helped make the event. He was everything we wanted on the panels -- he brought the light touch, brought a complex issue down to a common understanding level for anyone in the room, engaged all of the panelists beautifully, brought out the points each of them needed to make and did it with great skill. I just can't enough about what a great job he did today.

Healthcare Leadership Council 

At ABC he contributes to Nightline, World News Tonight and World News Now. Krulwich’s rare talent for on-air teaching is often called upon to make complicated subjects comprehensible. Over the years, Krulwich has even used ballet companies, puppets, animals (live and stuffed) to help illustrate hard-to-see concepts in finance, biology and economics.

Krulwich was the author of ABC’s Prime Time series, Brave New World, about technology and its effect on our lives, which included commercial television’s only hour- long look at string theory as well as stories on artificial intelligence and human cloning. He explored possible cures for cancer with Barbara Walters; and with Peter Jennings he produced an animated history of Bosnia for an ABC children's special. He won an Emmy award for an hour-long cultural history of Barbie, the world-famous doll.

In 2005, Krulwich was host and editor of a five-part series on PBS called NOVA scienceNow that reported on new ideas from laboratories around the world, from nanotechnology to hydrogen-powered cars.

He has won numerous awards, including: the AAAS Science Journalism Award for the 2001 NOVA special, Cracking the Code of Life; The Extraordinary Communicator Award from the National Cancer Institute; and an Emmy, A Polk Award and a DuPont Award for his PBS Frontline broadcasts on internet privacy, the savings and loan scandals and campaign finance.

A graduate of Oberlin College, Krulwich received a law degree from Columbia University but quit the profession after only two months. As a business and economics correspondent for NPR, he began experimenting with theatre techniques, asking fellow correspondents to play dramatic roles (mice, auto workers, anchovies) to illustrate concepts in finance and science.

“I like talking about ‘invisible ideas’ and trying to find a way to explain what you’ve learned so people can grasp it,” he says. In his lectures and personal appearances, Krulwich — creative, expressive and, most of alll, curious — is a show and an education all by himself.