Jon Hamilton
Jon Hamilton is a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk. Currently he focuses on neuroscience and health risks.
In 2014, Hamilton went to Liberia as part of the NPR team that covered Ebola. The team received a Peabody Award for its coverage.
Following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Hamilton was part of NPR's team of science reporters and editors who went to Japan to cover the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
Hamilton contributed several pieces to the Science Desk series "The Human Edge," which looked at what makes people the most versatile and powerful species on Earth. His reporting explained how humans use stories, how the highly evolved human brain is made from primitive parts, and what autism reveals about humans' social brains.
In 2009, Hamilton received the Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award for his piece on the neuroscience behind treating autism.
Before joining NPR in 1998, Hamilton was a media fellow with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation studying health policy issues. He reported on states that have improved their Medicaid programs for the poor by enrolling beneficiaries in private HMOs.
From 1995-1997, Hamilton wrote on health and medical topics as a freelance writer, after having been a medical reporter for both The Commercial Appeal and Physician's Weekly.
Hamilton graduated with honors from Oberlin College in Ohio with a Bachelor of Arts in English. As a student, he was the editor of the Oberlin Review student newspaper. He earned his master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where he graduated with honors. During his time at Columbia, Hamilton was awarded the Baker Prize for magazine writing and earned a Sherwood traveling fellowship.
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A survey of 1,700 Americans 45 and older found that 79% would want to know if they were in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. -
A new survey from the Alzheimer's Association finds that people want to know if they are in the early stages of the disease, and are open to drug treatment.
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The NIH has announced an initiative that will use both public and private data from sources including pharmacies and federal health programs to study autism.
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Two new studies suggest that Parkinson's disease can potentially be treated with stem cells placed in a patient's brain. -
Two new studies suggest that stem cells are close to helping people with Parkinson's disease. The results are a victory for scientists who have spent decades trying to treat it with brain cells.
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Scientists have recreated a pathway that senses pain, using clusters of human nerve cells grown in a dish. -
Scientists created a model of the human pain pathway in a dish by connecting four separate brain organoids. The feat should help them understand sensory disorders like those affecting pain perception.
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New tests of blood and spinal fluid can identify people experiencing memory loss from Alzheimer's disease. -
New tests of blood and spinal fluid can show how far Alzheimer's has progressed and how fast a patient's memory will decline.
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Mia Love, the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, died three years after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, a brain cancer that is nearly always fatal.
