Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas L. Friedman '75, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, will speak at the opening of the International Investigative Journalism Program on Oct. 18.According to Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Whalen, Friedman will meet with students involved with media organizations and the journalism program during the afternoon.

"Our first order of business is to expose students from Brandeis to Thomas Friedman," Whalen said.

Whalen said after Friedman attends an event in Boston to be held later that day, he will return to campus to speak in Spingold Theater about current affairs. She also said due to Friedman's popularity, those who wish to attend this event must acquire a ticket, which will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Friedman won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2002, following a year of articles examining the global fallout of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Many of these columns were compiled in his most recent book, Longitudes and Attitudes.

Friedman has held the post of foreign affairs columnist since 1995, but has written for The Times in various capacities since 1981. His assignments included the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which he covered from 1982 to 1984, winning his first Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

In 1984, Friedman was transferred to Israel, where he served as The Times' Jerusalem bureau chief and, four years later, he received a second Pulitzer for international reporting. He was also awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship grant to write a book on his reflections of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, entitled, From Beirut to Jerusalem.

The book won numerous awards, including the National Book Award. It remained on The New York Times bestseller list for a year.

Friedman then went on assignment as the chief diplomatic correspondent for The Times, covering Secretary of State James Baker III and his journeys around the world from 1989 to 1992.

Friedman returned to domestic politics as The Times' White House correspondent, where he covered the first year of the Clinton administration.

Friedman also published The Lexus and the Olive Tree in 1997, about globalization.

Friedman graduated from Brandeis summa cum laude with a degree in Mediterranean Studies and went on to receive a Master's degree from St. Antony's College at Oxford in 1978, under a Marshall Scholarship.

Editor's note: Biographical information about Thomas Freidman was used from his Web site, www.thomaslfriedman.com.