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College of Arts and Sciences
Douglas R. Hofstadter |
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Appointed to IU faculty in 1977 (Assistant Professor in Computer Science) College Professor of Cognitive Science and of Computer Science (1988) Distinguished Professor (2007) Indiana University Bloomington Awarded the Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction category) 1980 A fitting description for Douglas Hofstadter is “Renaissance person.” Though his Ph.D. is in physics (University of Oregon, 1975) and he was hired in computer science at Indiana University , his intellectual explorations involve fields as diverse as mathematics, psychology, music, linguistics, and art. He is considered a pioneer in cognitive science; a field he has helped shape. Hofstadter's contributions to academia began with his doctorate in theoretical physics. His thesis research, published in Physical Review in 1976, concerned electrons in a crystal in a magnetic field. Hofstadter discovered the highly intricate pattern of their energy spectrum. Such structures later became known as “fractals,” and this one, now called the “Hofstadter butterfly,” was the first fractal discovered in physics. Douglas Hofstadter's first book, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, an idiosyncratic exploration of self-reference and consciousness, won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize and American Book Award. Despite its pervasive wordplay, GEB has been translated into many languages (often with Hofstadter's direct personal involvement), and for nearly three decades has inspired worldwide interest in cognitive science. Hofstadter is noted for his development (with the Fluid Analogies Research Group) of computational models of cognition; in these models, analogy plays the starring role. |
James Polk |
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Graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government in 1964 Awarded the Pulitzer Prize (National reporting) 1974 “Name any big national or international story of misdeed, fraud, extortion, espionage, terrorism, crime, or corruption from the last 20 years, and it's a safe bet it will carry Jim Polk's byline or broadcast imprimatur.” So begins the entry commemorating Jim Polk's 1994 induction into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. IU graduate Polk earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1974 while working at the Washington Star . He earned the prize in the national reporting category for his coverage of Watergate, disclosing irregularities in the financing of the campaign to re-elect Nixon in 1972. A native of Oaktown, Ind., Polk wrote his first stories as an 8–year-old sports reporter for the weekly Oaktown Press . While at IU, he became a full-time reporter for the Bloomington Herald-Telephone while also attending school. After college, he joined the Associated Press bureau in Indianapolis, eventually landing in Washington with the AP. From 1975 to 1992, Polk worked for NBC News, covering stories such as the CIA's role in flying arms to Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra scandal, the downfall of baseball great Pete Rose, and the racketeering case against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. He is now an executive producer at CNN, where he continues his involvement in special investigations, such as CNN's coverage of the terrorist bombing of the World Trace Center . |
School of Journalism
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Tom French |
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Graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in 1981 Awarded the Pulitzer Prize (Feature Writing) 1998 Since graduating from Indiana University in 1981, Tom French has spent his entire career at The St. Petersburg ( Fla. ) Times. He started as a night police beat reporter, covering criminal and civil courts, and now specializes in “serial narratives,” multi-part stories published in the paper over a period of time. His Pulitzer Prize was awarded for Angels & Demons , a series about an Ohio woman and her two daughters who were murdered while vacationing in Florida and the subsequent search for their killer. French devotes between six weeks and two years to each reporting project, sometimes turning the stories into books. While an IU student, French served as editor in chief of the Indiana Daily Student newspaper and placed second in the prestigious Hearst National Reporting Competition. |
Michel duCille |
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Graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in 1985 Awarded the Pulitzer Prize (Spot News Photography) 1986 and the Pulitzer Prize (Feature Photography) 1988 Michel duCille began work for The Miami Herald after graduation. His first Pulitzer Prize was shared with fellow Miami Herald staffer Carol Guzy for coverage of the November 1985 eruption of Colombia 's Nevado Del Ruiz volcano. DuCille won his second Pulitzer for a photo story about crack cocaine addicts in a Miami housing project. He has since served as picture editor at The Washington Post where he has shot photo stories in Iraq , Sudan , Liberia and Sierra Leone . He is currently a senior photographer with the Post. While a student at IU, duCille worked on the Indiana Daily Student newspaper. |
Bill Foley |
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Studied photojournalism and telecommunications at Indiana University from 1973 to 1977 Awarded the Pulitzer Prize (Spot News Photography) 1983 Shortly after leaving Indiana University in 1977, Bill Foley became a staff photographer for the Associated Press. For the next six years, Foley lived and worked in the Middle East, covering major stories, including the Camp David peace negotiations, the assassination of Anwar Sadat, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon , and bombings of the US Embassy and Marine barracks. Foley's photographs of the 1982 Sabra and Chatilla massacre, where a Lebanese militia group murdered hundreds of Palestinian refugees, earned him the Pulitzer Prize. Since then, Foley has also worked as a contract photographer for TIME magazine, and has photographed for the Children's Aid Society, the Columbia University Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and the Center for the Advancement of Children's Mental Health in New York City . Foley is currently an adjunct professor in the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City . |
Gene Miller |
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Graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism in 1950 Awarded the Pulitzer Prize ( Local Investigative Specialized Reporting) 1967 and the Pulitzer Prize ( Local General Spot News Reporting) 1976 Received an Honorary IU degree in 1977 After graduating from IU in 1950, Gene Miller held several different newspaper jobs, until he landed a job working for the Miami Herald in 1957. For the next 48 years, the Evansville native worked as a reporter and editor at the Herald , winning two Pulitzer Prizes along the way. The first prize in 1967 was for investigative reporting that cleared two people convicted in separate murder cases. The second prize, awarded in 1976, was based on Miller's eight-year examination of a 1963 murder case that resulted in two men sentenced to death row. Over 130 stories, most by Miller, documented police beatings and evidence of a confession by a third man never charged in the murder. Both men convicted of the murder were freed in 1975. In 1977, Miller earned an honorary degree from IU. Miller even wrote his own obituary, which was published in the Miami Herald the day of his death in June 2005. |
Ernie Pyle |
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Awarded the Pulitzer Prize (Correspondence) 1944 Received an Honorary IU degree in 1944 Ernie Pyle, perhaps America 's most famous war correspondent, studied journalism at Indiana University in the early 1920s before beginning his career as a professional journalist. Pyle traveled America in the 20s and 30s, reporting on American life while he worked alongside some of America's best and brightest young journalists. A trip to London at the end of 1940 to report on the Nazi bombing there catapulted Pyle to fame – his brilliant writing on the destruction of London helped earn him his reputation as a war reporter. That reputation was cemented when Pyle returned to the European theater in 1942 to continue reporting on the war. Pyle didn't file daily stories on the fighting and strategic situation – instead, he looked for stories and stored them up in his mind, then went back from the front lines and wrote them up. It was Pyle's knack for telling stories about the common soldier in his columns that earned him the Pulitzer Prize. In 1944, Pyle returned home to receive his honorary degree from IU, and early in 1945, Pyle traveled to the Pacific theater, where he was killed by a machine gun bullet on the Japanese island of Ie Shima . |
