Geoff Brumfiel

Mike Morgan / NPR

Geoff Brumfiel works as a senior editor and correspondent on NPR's science desk. His editing duties include science and space, while his reporting focuses on the intersection of science and national security.

From April of 2016 to September of 2018, Brumfiel served as an editor overseeing basic research and climate science. Prior to that, he worked for three years as a reporter covering physics and space for the network. Brumfiel has carried his microphone into ghost villages created by the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. He's tracked the journey of highly enriched uranium as it was shipped out of Poland. For a story on how animals drink, he crouched for over an hour and tried to convince his neighbor's cat to lap a bowl of milk.

Before NPR, Brumfiel was based in London as a senior reporter for Nature Magazine from 2007-2013. There, he covered energy, space, climate, and the physical sciences. From 2002 – 2007, Brumfiel was Nature Magazine's Washington Correspondent.

Brumfiel is the 2013 winner of the Association of British Science Writers award for news reporting on the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Vaccine Refusal May Put Herd Immunity At Risk, Researchers Warn

By Geoff Brumfiel • 12 hours ago

Joyce Ann Kraner is eager for the pandemic to end and for life to get back to normal. Kraner, 49, wants to be able to hug her mother, who lives in a nursing home.

But she says she has no plans to get the vaccine, even though it's widely available in her community of Murfreesboro, Tenn. "I feel like I'm healthy," she says.

Herd Immunity Is At Risk If Many People In U.S. Say 'No' To Vaccine

By Geoff Brumfiel • 19 hours ago

With Iranian Nuclear Deal In Limbo, Some Worry Inspectors Will Lose Access For Good

By Geoff Brumfiel • Mar 15, 2021

For months, Iran has slowly been violating terms of a 2015 deal designed to limit its nuclear program. It has been accumulating enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear reactors or, potentially, nuclear weapons. It's been ramping up its research and development.

But until recently, there was one thing Iran didn't touch: the nuclear inspections conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

What Happens Next? The Aftermath Of An Iranian Scientist's Assassination

By Geoff Brumfiel • Dec 3, 2020

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

China Sends Robotic Mission To The Moon To Collect Rocks

By Geoff Brumfiel • Nov 24, 2020

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And now we turn to the newest campaign in space. Early Tuesday morning in Beijing, China launched a rocket to the moon. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel has more on the mission.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: The probe is known as Chang'e 5.