Sydney Schanberg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked as an investigative reporter and columnist. He won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. The Pulitzer is the most prestigious award in journalism. Schanberg garnered the Pulitzer reporting for The New York Times from Cambodia in 1974. His story about aide Dith Pran and Pran's escape from tyrannical Cambodia was the subject of the acclaimed movie, "The Killing Fields," in which Schanberg was a main figure. Schanberg worked for more than 20 years as a reporter at The Times, spending eight years as columnist. His column on New York City politics and events was highly acclaimed. His writing often was devoted to the plight of the poor and the individual and opposed civic projects supported by some of New York's most powerful interests, particularly those in the real estate industry. He was also sharply critical of New York Mayor Edward L. Koch. He received a special James Polk Award for his courageous commentary in 1979.

Schanberg resigned from The Times in 1985 after The Times tried to reassign him from writing a column to the newspaper's magazine. The reassignment came after Schanberg criticized The Times for its support of the Westway highway project. Many believed that the reassignment was in retaliation for his criticism.

"People used to ask me if I were told what to write, and the answer was always no," Schanberg said at the time. "I always took pride in that. This decision to discontinue the column is not part of that tradition, and that is what saddens me." Schanberg's resignation was heralded in journalism as a courageous and principled act.

Schanberg then went on to write his column of commentary in Newsday until 1998. At that time Schanberg became chief of an investigative unit for an online news service. He was the first James H. Ottaway Sr. Endowed Professor at SUNY New Paltz.

Sydney H. Schanberg, a journalist for nearly 50 years, has written extensively on foreign affairs--particularly Asia--and on domestic issues such as ethics, racial problems, government secrecy, corporate excesses and the weaknesses of the national media.

Most of his journalism career has been spent on newspapers but his award-winning work has also appeared widely in other publications and media. The 1984 movie, The Killing Fields, which won several Academy Awards, was based on his book The Death and Life of Dith Pran - a memoir of his experiences covering the war in Cambodia for the New York Times and of his relationship with his Cambodian colleague, Dith Pran.

For his accounts of the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, Schanberg was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting "at great risk." He is also the recipient of many other awards - including two George Polk awards, two Overseas Press Club awards and the Sigma Delta Chi prize for distinguished journalism.