Lauren Sommer

Lauren Sommer is a correspondent for NPR's climate desk, where she covers scientists on the frontlines of documenting the warming climate and how that science is — and isn't — being used by communities to prepare for increasing disasters.

Since joining NPR, she's looked at how a lack of building codes is putting people at risk of wildfires, how cities are failing to plan for stronger storms and how communities are allowing development in flood-prone areas. Sommer also scaled ice sheets to explore how melting polar ice is having mysterious impacts around the planet. That project won gold in the 2023 Kavli Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Prior to joining NPR, she spent more than a decade covering climate and environment for KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, where she delved into the impacts of California's historic drought and record-breaking wildfires. On the lighter side, she's run from charging elephant seals and searched for frogs in Sierra Nevada lakes.

Sommer was also host of KQED's macrophotography nature series Deep Look, which searched for universal truths in tiny organisms like black-widow spiders and parasites. She has received a national Edward R. Murrow, as well as awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Society of Environmental Journalists.

She can be reached via encrypted message at sommer.55 on Signal.