About
Rob Verger is the former Technology Editor at Popular Science. His expertise is in covering aviation, transportation, and military tech.
Experience
Rob has more than a decade of experience in journalism, a career that has had him strapping into the back seat of an F-16 to climbing aboard an Air Force tanker aircraft to watch F-22 fighter jets get refueled. Before joining Popular Science, he spent several years on staff at Newsweek and The Daily Beast, where he focused on international topics; he has also freelanced for publications such as The Boston Globe.
He arrived at PopSci in 2017, and has been making loud reporting phone calls ever since. His articles frequently touch on aviation, the military, and transportation, and his curiosity and reporting skills have taken him down many rich paths: investigating the materials and tech in artificial hips, learning about engine block manufacturing in Michigan, exploring the inside of a B-52 bomber at an Air Force base in Louisiana, and driving a supercar in New York.
He has extensive experience on camera and with other forms of multimedia. Rob appeared on the Today Show, and since then has been a guest on Cheddar, Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox Business, and other outlets. He’s also been a guest on The Daily Dive podcast, PopSci’s Ask Us Anything podcast, and the Kelly Cutrara radio news show out of Toronto, Canada, to discuss aviation security post-9/11. In 2021, he moderated a discussion on aerospace careers for Purdue University’s Amelia Earhart Summit. In addition to running PopSci’s tech section, he is the project manager for its annual Best of What’s New awards.
Education
Rob attended Middlebury College, where he majored in English. He later earned an MFA in nonfiction writing at Columbia, receiving a fellowship to teach at the university’s Undergraduate Writing Program for two years. He holds an MA in science reporting from Columbia Journalism School, where he received a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship.
