Bina Venkataraman is an American journalist, author, and science policy expert. She is currently Editor-at-Large for The Boston Globe, and from 2019 to 2022, served as the news organization’s youngest-ever Editorial Page Editor, overseeing its opinion coverage and its editorial board during two presidential impeachment trials, the 2020 election, the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd, the Capitol insurrection, and Boston’s historic 2021 mayoral election. During her tenure, The Globe had two Pulitzer finalists for editorial writing.She is the author of The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age (Riverhead, 2019), named a top business book by The Financial Times and a best book of the year by National Public Radio. Since 2011, Bina has taught in MIT’s program on science, technology, and society.
Bina formerly served as Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation in the Obama White House, where she forged partnerships among communities, companies, and government to prepare for climate disasters and to declassify data useful for global development. She also advised the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in responding to the Ebola epidemic, promoting patient access to cancer therapies, and reforming public school science education. She previously was the Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT, and before that was a science reporter for The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
Bina is a frequent public speaker whose appearances have included the TED mainstage, NPR, Aspen Ideas, CNN, MSNBC, and university campuses around the world. She delivered the 2021 Commencement address at the University of Southern California, and received an honorary doctorate from USC in 2022. She is the recipient of the New America national fellowship, the Princeton in Asia fellowship, and the James Reston fellowship at The New York Times. In 2015, she was named Global Young Leader by the French-American Foundation. Bina has served on numerous boards including the President’s Leadership Council at Brown University. She is an alumna of Brown University and the Harvard Kennedy School.