PASADENA, Calif.- Robert Krulwich, a radio and television journalist whose specialty is explaining complex topics--science, technology, economics--in a style that is clear, compelling, and entertaining, will be the featured speaker at the California Institute of Technology's 114th annual commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. on June 13.
Krulwich regularly appears on ABC's World News and National Public Radio's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He cohosts Radio Lab, a national radio series that explores new developments in science for people who are curious but not usually drawn to science shows. "I like talking about ideas, and I especially like creating images that will keep those ideas in people's heads" he says. Krulwich was called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide.
He has explored the chemistry of global warming and the mysteries of RNA; he created his own Italian opera, Ratto Interesso to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; and he pioneered the use of new animation on ABC's Nightline and World News, and on NPR's website to explore cellular biology and subprime lending.
Krulwich first joined NPR in 1978 and served as economics reporter until 1985 when he joined CBS News. Since 1994, he has been an ABC News correspondent. With Ted Koppel, he cohosted the eight-part primetime series Brave New World, which probed the "eight biggest questions facing humankind." With Peter Jennings, he produced an animated history of Bosnia for a children's special. With Barbara Walters, he explored possible cures for cancer.
He is also a regular correspondent on the PBS investigative series Frontline, for which he received an Alfred I duPont--Columbia University Award for his coverage of campaign finance in the 1992 presidential campaign, a national Emmy Award for his investigation of privacy on the Internet, "High Stakes in Cyberspace," and a George Polk Award for a piece on the savings-and-loan scandal. His ABC special on Barbie, a cultural history of the world-famous doll, also won a national Emmy.
Krulwich has also anchored a cultural-affairs series on PBS (and a simultaneous series on the BBC) called The Edge. He has hosted Live at Lincoln Center and appeared on Jay Leno's premiere Tonight Show broadcast.
Krulwich formerly hosted a semifictional year-in-review called Backfire, with friends Jane Curtin, Buck Henry, and Tony Hendra. In 1995, the group performed at the White House at the invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton.
Krulwich regularly moderates discussions with well-known scientists in a program called Giants of Science with Robert Krulwich at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. He is an alumnus of their nursery school.
He received the Eleanor Nealon Extraordinary Communicator's Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2000 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Journalism Award in 2001 for a NOVA special on the human genome.
Krulwich received a bachelor's degree in U.S. history from Oberlin College in 1969, and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 1974. He lives in New York City with his wife, Tamar Lewin, a national reporter for The New York Times. They have two children, Jesse and Nora Ann.
