American journalist and author. Born in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Friedman was educated at the University of Minnesota, Brandeis University, and Oxford University, where received a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies. He worked in Beirut for both United Press International and the New York Times; his reporting from Lebanon won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. Reassigned by the Times to Jerusalem, he won a second Pulitzer in 1988. Friedman's twice-weekly op-ed column in the Times, begun in 1994, earned him a third Pulitzer in 2002, mainly for his commentary on the new challenges posed by international terrorism. Friedman's books include The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (rev. ed. 2000), the best-selling The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (2005), and his most recent, Hot, Flat, and Crowded (2008). See also thomaslfriedman.com.