David Baron is an author, journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who writes about astronomy and other sciences. His forthcoming book, THE MARTIANS, will be published in August 2025.
An avid eclipse chaser, David has witnessed nine total solar eclipses—from South America to Australia, Europe to Indonesia—and his TED Talk on the subject has been viewed more than two million times. His book AMERICAN ECLIPSE won the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award, was shortlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing, and has been adapted into a new musical by the Tony-nominated composer/lyricist Michael John LaChiusa.
For many years, David was best known as a voice on public radio, where he worked as a science correspondent for NPR and science editor for the program “The World.” Along the way, his work earned some of the top honors in journalism, including the Lowell Thomas Award, the Alfred I. duPont Award, the National Academies Communications Award, and, on three occasions, the annual journalism prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. David has also written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Scientific American, and other publications. His 2003 book, THE BEAST IN THE GARDEN, received the Colorado Book Award.
After studying physics and geology at Yale, David continued his education in the sciences during fellowships at M.I.T., the University of Colorado, and Arizona State University, and he has taught science journalism at Boston University. While writing THE MARTIANS, David served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. An affiliate of the University of Colorado’s Center for Environmental Journalism, he lives in Boulder.