David Willman
David Willman | |
---|---|
Born | (1956-10-18) October 18, 1956 (age 67) Pasadena, California, U.S. |
Education | B.A. in journalism |
Alma mater | Pasadena City College, San Jose State University |
Occupation | Investigative journalist |
David Willman (born October 18, 1956) is an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist.
Biography
Early life and education
Willman was born in California and graduated from San Jose State University with a B.A. in Journalism in 1978 after studying Journalism at Pasadena City College.[1]
Career
His work has prompted major public reforms, including a ban in 2005 of drug company payments to government scientists at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Willman's investigative reports in the Los Angeles Times also led to the March 2000 safety withdrawal of Rezulin, a Type 2 Diabetes drug that grossed more than $2 billion in sales.
Earlier in his career, Willman covered local, state and national politics, including presidential campaigns in 1980, 1984 and 1988.
Willman has worked from Washington D.C., and throughout California. His investigative reports in the 1990s exposed defective construction within tunnels of the Los Angeles subway,[2][3][4] along with defective welds at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum,[5] prompting structural overhauls.[6] Within the subway, sections of the tunnel walls had been built with concrete thinner than the required minimum of 12 inches. At the Coliseum, the faulty welds had helped support the facility's cantilevered press box, suspended over hundreds of spectator seats. All corrective subway repairs were ultimately made at the expense of the contractors responsible for the defective work, and leaders of both projects said the structures were safe.[7][8] He currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland.
Willman's 2011 book The Mirage Man: Bruce Ivins, the Anthrax Attacks, and America's Rush to War was published by Bantam Books and focuses on the 2001 anthrax letter attacks in the U.S. and the subsequent media coverage and FBI investigation.[9] In 2018, 20th Century Fox and film producer Steven Zaillian announced that they had bought the feature rights to The Mirage Man and were developing a movie based on it.[10]
Awards
In awarding Willman the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, the organization cited "his pioneering expose of seven unsafe prescription drugs that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and an analysis of the policy reforms that had reduced the agency’s effectiveness."[11]
In 2004, Willman won the Worth Bingham Prize, awarded for "investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is ill-served." Willman had brought to light drug company payments—including consulting fees and awards of stock and stock options—to senior scientists at the National Institutes of Health. When he announced a ban of such future payments, NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., credited Willman's reports in the Los Angeles Times.
Other honors he has won include the George Polk Award (1997) and the medal award of Investigative Reporters and Editors (1997, 1999). Willman was the first recipient of Harvard University's David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism (2005). His reporting on the investigation of the anthrax mailings won the Scripps Howard Foundation's Raymond Clapper award[12] as the year's best Washington-based coverage (2009).
References
- ^ "David Willman | UCLA Anderson School of Management". Anderson.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
- ^ Willman, David (August 29, 1993). "Subway Tunnel Walls Thinner Than Designed : Red Line : Concrete flaws in some areas may add risk in a big quake, experts say. Officials say the structure is sound". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Willman, David (September 3, 1993). "Reinforcing of Subway Found to be Deficient". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Willman, David (November 30, 1993). "Head of Subway Probe Linked to Tunnel Designer". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Willman, David (May 5, 1996). "Concerns Raised Over Coliseum Construction". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Willman, David (July 3, 1996). "Experts' Tests Uncover Coliseum Weld Defects". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Willman, David (March 12, 1994). "Original Firms to Fix Subway Tunnels for Free". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Willman, David (September 5, 1996). "Coliseum Press Box OKed for Occupancy". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Temple-Raston, Dina, "Mad Scientist Hides In Plain Sight", The Washington Post, 14 August 2011, p. B6.
- ^ McNary, Dave (July 27, 2018), “Steven Zaillian Developing Anthrax Attacks Movie ‘Mirage Man’”, Variety.
- ^ "The Pulitzer Prizes | Biography". Pulitzer.org. 1956-10-18. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
- ^ "Scripps Howard Foundation Announces National Journalism Awards Winners". News Release, Scripps Howard Foundation, March 13, 2009. Archived from the original on 2 July 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
- v
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- Edward J. Mowery (1953)
- Alvin McCoy (1954)
- Roland Kenneth Towery (1955)
- Arthur Daley (1956)
- Wallace Turner (1957)
- George Beveridge (1958)
- John Harold Brislin (1959)
- Miriam Ottenberg (1960)
- Edgar May (1961)
- George Bliss (1962)
- Oscar Griffin Jr. (1963)
- James V. Magee, Albert V. Gaudiosi & Frederick Meyer (1964)
- Gene Goltz (1965)
- John Anthony Frasca (1966)
- Gene Miller (1967)
- J. Anthony Lukas (1968)
- Al Delugach & Denny Walsh (1969)
- Harold E. Martin (1970)
- William Jones (1971)
- Timothy Leland, Gerard M. O'Neill, Stephen Kurkjian & Ann Desantis (1972)
- The Sun Newspapers of Omaha (1973)
- William Sherman (1974)
- The Indianapolis Star (1975)
- Chicago Tribune (1976)
- Acel Moore & Wendell Rawls Jr. (1977)
- Anthony R. Dolan (1978)
- Gilbert M. Gaul & Elliot G. Jaspin (1979)
- Stephen Kurkjian, Alexander B. Hawes Jr., Nils Bruzelius, Joan Vennochi & Robert M. Porterfield (1980)
- Clark Hallas & Robert B. Lowe (1981)
- Paul Henderson (1982)
- Loretta Tofani (1983)
- Kenneth Cooper, Joan Fitz Gerald, Jonathan Kaufman, Norman Lockman, Gary McMillan, Kirk Scharfenberg & David Wessel (1984)
- Lucy Morgan, Jack Reed & William K. Marimow (1985)
- Jeffrey A. Marx & Michael M. York (1986)
- Daniel R. Biddle, H.G. Bissinger, Fredric N. Tulsky & John Woestendiek (1987)
- Dean Baquet, William C. Gaines & Ann Marie Lipinski (19)
- Bill Dedman (1989)
- Lou Kilzer (1990)
- Joseph T. Hallinan & Susan M. Headden (1991)
- Lorraine Adams & Dan Malone (1992)
- Jeff Brazil & Steve Berry (1993)
- Providence Journal-Bulletin (1994)
- Stephanie Saul & Brian Donovan (1995)
- The Orange County Register (1996)
- Eric Nalder, Deborah Nelson & Alex Tizon (1997)
- Gary Cohn & Will Englund (1998)
- Miami Herald (1999)
- Sang-Hun Choe, Charles J. Hanley & Martha Mendoza (2000)
- David Willman (2001)
- Sari Horwitz, Scott Higham & Sarah Cohen (2002)
- Clifford J. Levy (2003)
- Michael D. Sallah, Joe Mahr & Mitch Weiss (2004)
- Nigel Jaquiss (2005)
- Susan Schmidt, James V. Grimaldi & R. Jeffrey Smith (2006)
- Brett Blackledge (2007)
- Walt Bogdanich, Jake Hooker & Chicago Tribune (2008)
- David Barstow (2009)
- Barbara Laker, Wendy Ruderman & Sheri Fink (2010)
- Paige St. John (2011)
- Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan, Chris Hawley, Michael J. Berens & Ken Armstrong (2012)
- David Barstow & Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab (2013)
- Chris Hamby (2014)
- Eric Lipton & The Wall Street Journal (2015)
- Leonora LaPeter Anton, Anthony Cormier, Michael Braga & Esther Htusan (2016)
- Eric Eyre (2017)
- The Washington Post (2018)
- Matt Hamilton, Harriet Ryan & Paul Pringle (2019)
- Brian Rosenthal (2020)
- Matt Rocheleau, Vernal Coleman, Laura Crimaldi, Evan Allen & Brendan McCarthy (2021)
- Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington & Eli Murray (2022)
- Staff of The Wall Street Journal (2023)