Adam Cole is a reporter and producer for the Science Desk, where he creates short documentary videos, radio pieces, animations, musical podcast segments, data visualizations, and GIFs about science. In 2014, Cole launched Skunk Bear, a visual science blog and YouTube channel that has built a robust audience on social media: Skunk Bear’s videos have been viewed more than 9 million times.
Cole came to NPR as an editorial intern for the Science Desk in January 2011, and was then hired to stay on as a production assistant from 2011 to 2012.
He got his start in journalism at The Ferndale Enterprise, a small but mighty local weekly paper in Northern California. Before that, he worked as a research scientist, studying the genetics of pancreatic cancer and the physics of mussel beds.
Cole has won and been nominated for various awards, including Webbys and Vimeo awards, WHNPA awards for Multimedia Feature and Multimedia Linear Storytelling, a second place Best of Photojournalism 2015 award, a first place National Association of Black Journalists Salute To Excellence 2014 award for Digital Media: Feature Story, two Best American Infographics awards, and an EPPY award.
He currently serves as an instructor with Johns Hopkins University’s Master of Arts in Science Writing program.
Cole received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, and a Master of Science in Biology from Stanford University.