Thomas L. Friedman, world-renowned author and journalist, joined the New York Times in 1981 as a financial reporter focusing on OPEC and the oil industry. He later served as the chief diplomatic, White House, and international economics correspondent. A three-time Pulitzer Prize recipient, Friedman has reported extensively on the Middle East conflict, the end of the Cold War, US domestic and foreign policy, international economics, and the global impact of terrorism. His foreign affairs column, which appears twice a week in the Times, is syndicated to one hundred newspapers worldwide.

Friedman is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won both the National Book Award and the Overseas Press Club Award in 1989. His business bestseller, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, received the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy and has since been translated into twenty languages. His book Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11, presents a collection of columns he published about September 11, as well as a diary of private reflections he wrote while reporting from Afghanistan, Israel, Europe, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. In The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century, which was the inaugural recipient of the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, Friedman articulates the intertwining of global economics, policy, energy, and trade.

For the past several years, Friedman has devoted his attention to reporting on green initiatives, global warming, and alternative energy and is considered to be one of the foremost conduits for translating the complex science behind global climate change to millions of readers. His book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America, was a longstanding number one on the Times’ bestseller list.