John Noble Wilford
John Noble Wilford | |
---|---|
Born | (1933-10-04) October 4, 1933 (age 90) Murray, Kentucky |
Occupation | Journalist, author |
Citizenship | United States |
Alma mater | University of Tennessee, Syracuse University |
Genre | Science journalism |
Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize (1984) Carl Sagan Award for Public Appreciation of Science (2001) |
John Noble Wilford (born October 4, 1933[1]) is an author and science journalist for The New York Times.
Biography
Wilford was born October 4, 1933, in Murray, Kentucky, and attended Grove High School across the border in nearby Paris, Tennessee.[1] After graduating from high school, he attended Lambuth College for a year before transferring to University of Tennessee in the fall of 1952.[1] He received a B.S. in journalism from UT in 1955 and an M.A. in political science from Syracuse University in 1956.[2] After completing his master's degree, Wilford spent two years with the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps in West Germany.[1]
Wilford's professional career began at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was a summer reporter in 1954 and 1955. He briefly served as a general assignment reporter at The Wall Street Journal in 1956. Following his military service, he was a medical reporter at the Journal from 1959 to 1961.[1] In 1962, he held an Advanced International Reporting Fellowship at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. That year, he also joined Time as a contributing editor specializing in science before moving in 1965 to The New York Times to be a science reporter (1965–1973) and science correspondent (1979–2008).[1][3] While at the NYT he also worked as assistant national news editor (1973–1975) and director of science news (1975–1979).
In 1969, he wrote the newspaper's front-page article about the Apollo 11 landing. His was the only byline on the front page, beneath the headline "Men Walk On Moon" and under the subheading "A Powdery Surface is Closely Explored."[4] On the 40th anniversary of the mission, Wilford's article was lauded by journalist Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, who emphasized Wilford's skillful use of data. For example, Wilford wrote, "Although Mr. Armstrong is known as a man of few words, his heartbeats told of his excitement upon leading man's first landing on the moon. At the time of the descent rocket ignition, his heartbeat rate registered 110 a minute—77 is normal for him—and it shot up to 156 at touchdown." Dubner argues that this is one of the most elegant uses of data to have been ever used in journalism.[5] In the 2010s, Wilford's name was the only byline on the newspaper's front-page obituaries of Neil Armstrong and John Glenn.
Wilford received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for work on "scientific topics of national import". He also contributed to the staff entry that received a 1987 National Reporting Pulitzer for coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and its implications. He has also won the G.M. Loeb Achievement Award from the University of Connecticut, the National Space Club Press Award and two awards from the Aviation-Space Writers Association.[2] He was the 2008 recipient of the University of Tennessee's Hileman Distinguished Alumni Award.[6]
Bibliography
The following is a partial bibliography:
- We Reach the Moon; the New York Times Story of Man's Greatest adventure (1969, ISBN 0-373-06369-0)
- The Mapmakers (1981, ISBN 0-394-46194-0)
- The Riddle of the Dinosaur (1985, ISBN 0-394-52763-1)
- Mars Beckons: the Mysteries, the Challenges, the Expectations of our Next Great Adventure in Space (1990, ISBN 0-394-58359-0)
- The Mysterious History of Columbus: an Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy (1991, ISBN 0-679-40476-7)
References
- ^ a b c d e f Klein, Milton M. "Prominent Alumni: Part II". University of Tennessee, Knoxville History. University of Tennessee. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ^ a b "John Noble Wilford". University of Tennessee Libraries. Retrieved January 7, 2009.
- ^ Wilford, John Noble (December 8, 2014). "Covering Mars Opened a New World". New York Times. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
- ^ Wilford, John Noble (July 13, 2009). "On Hand for Space History, as Superpowers Spar". The New York Times. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ^ Dubner, Stephen J. (July 21, 2009). "When Data Tell the Story". The New York Times. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
- ^ Tech, S. I. S. (September 3, 2012). "Hileman Award - College of Communication and Information".
External links
- "Prominent Alumni: Part II" Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- Recent and archived news articles by Wilford, from The New York Times
- v
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- Louis Stark (1942)
- Dewey L. Fleming (1944)
- James Reston (1945)
- Edward A. Harris (1946)
- Edward T. Folliard (1947)
- Bert Andrews & Nat S. Finney (1948)
- C. P. Trussell (1949)
- Edwin O. Guthman (1950)
- Anthony Leviero (1952)
- Don Whitehead (1953)
- Richard Wilson (1954)
- Anthony Lewis (1955)
- Charles L. Bartlett (1956)
- James Reston (1957)
- Clark Mollenhoff & Relman Morin (1958)
- Howard Van Smith (1959)
- Vance Trimble (1960)
- Edward R. Cony (1961)
- Nathan G. Caldwell & Gene S. Graham (1962)
- Anthony Lewis (1963)
- Merriman Smith (1964)
- Louis M. Kohlmeier Jr. (1965)
- Haynes Johnson (1966)
- Stanley Penn & Monroe Karmin (1967)
- Nathan K. (Nick) Kotz & Howard James (1968)
- Robert Cahn (1969)
- William J. Eaton (1970)
- Lucinda Franks (1971)
- Jack Anderson (1972)
- Robert Boyd & Clark Hoyt (1973)
- Jack White & James R. Polk (1974)
- Donald L. Barlett & James B. Steele (1975)
- James V. Risser (1976)
- Walter Mears (1977)
- Gaylord D. Shaw (1978)
- James V. Risser (1979)
- Bette Swenson Orsini & Charles Stafford (1980)
- John M. Crewdson (1981)
- Rick Atkinson (1982)
- The Boston Globe (1983)
- John Noble Wilford (1984)
- Thomas J. Knudson (1985)
- Craig Flournoy, George Rodrigues & Arthur Howe (1986)
- Staff of The Miami Herald & Staff of The New York Times (1987)
- Tim Weiner (1988)
- Donald L. Barlett & James B. Steele (1989)
- Ross Anderson, Bill Dietrich, Mary Ann Gwinn & Eric Nalder (1990)
- Marjie Lundstrom, Rochelle Sharpe & Gannett News Service (1991)
- Jeff Taylor, Mike McGraw & The Kansas City Star (1992)
- David Maraniss (1993)
- Eileen Welsome (1994)
- Tony Horwitz (1995)
- Alix M. Freedman (1996)
- Staff of The Wall Street Journal (1997)
- Russell Carollo & Jeff Nesmith (1998)
- Staff of The New York Times (1999)
- Jeff Gerth (1999)
- Staff of The Wall Street Journal (2000)
- Staff of The New York Times (2001)
- Staff of The Washington Post (2002)
- Alan Miller & Kevin Sack (2003)
- Staff of Los Angeles Times (2004)
- Walt Bogdanich (2005)
- James Risen & Eric Lichtblau (2006)
- Staff of The San Diego Union-Tribune & Staff of Copley News Service including Marcus Stern & Jerry Kammer (2006)
- Charlie Savage (2007)
- Jo Becker & Barton Gellman (2008)
- Staff of St. Petersburg Times (2009)
- Matt Richtel & Staff of The New York Times (2010)
- Jesse Eisinger & Jake Bernstein (2011)
- David Wood (2012)
- Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan & David Hasemyer (2013)
- David Philipps (2014)
- Carol D. Leonnig (2015)
- Staff of The Washington Post (2016)
- David Fahrenthold (2017)
- Staff of The New York Times & Staff of The Washington Post (2018)
- Staff of The Wall Street Journal (2019)
- Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker & Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times (2020)
- T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose & Robert Faurtechi of ProPublica (2020)
- Staff of The New York Times (2022)
- [Caroline Kitchener]] (2023)