About Miles @milesobrien
Miles O’Brien is veteran, independent journalist who focuses on science, technology and aerospace.
He is the science correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, a producer and director for the PBS science documentary series NOVA, and a correspondent for the PBS documentary series FRONTLINE and the National Science Foundation Science Nation series.
For nearly seventeen of his thirty-two years in the news business, he worked for CNN as the science, environment and aerospace space correspondent and the anchor of various programs, including American Morning.
While at CNN, he secured a deal with NASA to become the first journalist to fly on the space shuttle. The project ended with the loss of Columbia and her crew in 2003 – a story he told to the world in a critically acclaimed sixteen-hour marathon of live coverage.
Prior to joining CNN, he worked as a reporter at television stations in Boston, Tampa, Albany, NY and St. Joseph, MO. He began his television career as a desk assistant at WRC-TV in Washington, DC.
O’Brien is an accomplished aviator and aircraft owner who often pilots his airplane to assignments, and is frequently called upon to explain the world of aviation to a mass audience.
He has won numerous awards over the years, including a half-dozen Emmys, and a Peabody and DuPont for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
Born in Detroit and raised in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI, he is based in Washington, DC. He has a son at the US Naval Academy and a daughter at Davidson College in North Carolina. He was a history major at Georgetown University.
Miles’s Recent Stories
Politics Nov 18
Behind the ballots in Georgia’s recount — the largest in U.S. historyAs President Trump presses forward with legal challenges to the election and reiterates false claims that he won, Georgia has been in the spotlight due to its massive statewide recount. The deadline for completing the recount is approaching -- and…
Science Nov 16
The risks and rewards of Operation Warp Speed’s approach to vaccinesThe race to develop vaccine candidates to prevent COVID-19 represents an unprecedented national and global effort. President Trump and some public health experts say encouraging early results from Pfizer and Moderna suggest the approach is working. But there are also…
Politics Nov 06
In an unprecedented election, two key swing states show how we got hereElection Day has come and gone, but there are still many unanswered questions, along with uncertainty about how we got here and where we go next. In this episode, we talk to our reporters who have been covering this election…
Nation Oct 26
Will Georgia’s new voting machines solve election problems — or make them worse?Protecting the American voting process from outside interference is a top priority this election season. But public and political opinion are divided over the best voting systems to prevent tampering. Miles O’Brien takes a look at the latest technology being…
Nation Oct 14
What election officials think about paper ballots and voting machinesDuring this election, early and absentee voting are expected to reach record levels, with mail-in ballots drawing significant attention as a result. President Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that voting by mail is not safe or reliable -- but…
Politics Sep 24
Trump says voting by mail isn’t reliable. What does the evidence show?President Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power is tied to his criticism and false statements about voting by mail, which is expected to reach record levels in this election. Trump insists it can't be trusted --…
Health Jul 22
What we know about the search for a COVID-19 vaccine — and what we don’tThe question of when a COVID-19 vaccine might be available is perhaps the most pressing in the world. There have been a number of recent headlines on this front, including early but encouraging results from trials. And on Wednesday, the…
Science Jul 08
Companies race to mine lithium, a battery essentialThe metal lithium has become integral to our daily lives, due to its essential role as a battery material in electronic devices. Over the next several decades, the rising popularity of electric vehicles is expected to mean the demand for…
Health Jul 01
How doctors are innovating to treat COVID-19One of the reasons COVID-19 presents such a significant global medical challenge is that there are few effective therapies for it so far. As cases fill hospital beds across many parts of the country, doctors and scientists are coming up…
Politics Jun 22
In Georgia, primary election chaos highlights a voting system deeply flawedGeorgia experienced major problems with its voting processes during a primary election earlier in June. People waited in line up to eight hours to cast ballots, and poll workers struggled with new machines on which they hadn’t been trained due…
