Eli Chen
Science ReporterEli Chen is the science and environment reporter at St. Louis Public Radio. She comes to St. Louis after covering the eroding Delaware coast, bat-friendly wind turbine technology, mouse love songs and various science stories for Delaware Public Media/WDDE-FM. Before that, she corralled robots and citizen scientists for the World Science Festival in New York City and spent a brief stint booking guests for Science Friday’s live events in 2013. Eli grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, where a mixture of teen angst, a love for Ray Bradbury novels and the growing awareness about climate change propelled her to become the science storyteller she is today. When not working, Eli enjoys a solid bike ride, collects classic disco, watches standup comedy and is often found cuddling other people’s dogs. She has a bachelor’s in environmental sustainability and creative writing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has a master’s degree in journalism, with a focus on science reporting, from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
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Black people and other minorities who work for mainstream environmental advocacy organizations in the St. Louis region struggle to fit in and make their ideas heard. But without them, environmental organizations are ill-equipped to serve communities of color. -
The Sierra Club, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment and other St. Louis-area environmental groups have released public statements to express support for the Black Lives Matter movement. But the largely white organizations, which focus on policy and outdoor recreation, have found it difficult to address environmental problems that affect predominantly black St. Louis neighborhoods. -
Research shows that the number of warm, humid days that allow mosquitoes to thrive is increasing in Missouri due to climate change. St. Louis-area scientists think local health officials need to increase their tracking of mosquitoes and the diseases the insects carry to prepare for longer mosquito seasons. -
Updated 9:40 a.m. with a statement from city officials. The St. Louis NAACP is considering a federal civil rights lawsuit to force St. Louis officials to… -
When the coronavirus began spreading in the St. Louis region, Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis was about seven months pregnant. Like other doctors at the… -
More than 280,000 properties in Missouri are at risk of flood damage, according to a nationwide study of flood zones.That's nearly twice the number… -
Updated at 6:20 p.m., June 24, with comments from Bayer officials. German biotech giant Bayer AG has agreed to pay up to $10.9 billion to settle tens of… -
About a year ago, Jermell Hasson Williams called the police because he smelled a terrible odor and thought someone might have died in the vacant house… -
Nursing homes could soon allow families to visit their loved ones outdoors. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services released guidelines… -
German biotech giant Bayer AG could lose tens of millions of dollars from a federal ban this week of its widely used dicamba weedkiller. The Environmental… -
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Leticia Classen-Rodriguez planned on spending spring and summer searching for wolf spiders along a winding tree-covered… -
Earlie Fuse’s home in Centreville, Illinois, flooded in 1993. Since then, Fuse and his neighbors have experienced worse floods. Some found that the sewer…
