Awards & Conferences

The Nieman Foundation presents annual journalism awards to news organizations and journalists who have produced exceptional work in several categories. In honoring journalistic excellence, the foundation helps draw attention to innovative research, reporting and storytelling and share the lessons learned from groundbreaking reporting projects in print, on air and online.

“Exposed and Expendable,” an in-depth investigation by New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier that revealed the serious health risks firefighters face when working without masks, is the winner of the 2025 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism. Her reporting found that for decades, the U.S. Forest Service banned masks for firefighters, and the toxic smoke they encountered led to serious illnesses and premature deaths. Dreier conducted more than 400 interviews across the country and visited the front lines of several large fires with photographers to chronicle conditions, sometimes spending 12-hour days near dense fire smoke. The stories led to important reforms including the reversal of the U.S. Forest Service’s ban on respiratory protection. Bingham Prize judge Jason Grotto said: “With stunning detail and clear prose, Hannah Dreier’s ‘Exposed and Expendable’ captures the absurdity and devastating consequences of the neglect. As wildfires grow more frequent and severe, Dreier’s reporting from the fire line exposed the inhumane treatment of those on the front lines.”

“Alligator Alcatraz,” a series by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times that exposed falsehoods spread by state and federal officials about Florida’s most controversial migrant detention center, is the winner of the 2025 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism. The investigation revealed that hundreds of migrants held in Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center faced no criminal charges in the U.S. The reporting identified more than 700 people held or scheduled to be sent to the camp whose names were missing from a publicly accessible government database. The 2024 Taylor Award judges also selected two finalists: “Exposed and Expendable,” a series by New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier that showed how a decades-long U.S. Forest Service ban on the use of protective masks by wildland firefighters exposed workers to toxic smoke that caused serious illnesses and led to early deaths; and “On the Hook: Investigating Towing Practices in Connecticut,” a joint investigation by The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica, uncovered predatory state towing practices that targeted low-income residents.

Alfredo Corchado, executive editor of the Puente News Collaborative, is winner of the 2026 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. The award honors his work directing Puente’s innovative, partnership-driven approach to reporting along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. A bilingual journalism nonprofit, the El Paso, Texas-based Puente News Collaborative has connected independent journalists to newsrooms in the U.S. and Mexico since 2021, adding high-quality, fact-based reporting to the region’s local news ecosystem. The Puente network includes more than two dozen publishing partners whose shared reporting goes beyond border security issues to provide a range of critical news stories and features for and about communities in the U.S. and Latin America. Recognized as an expert on immigration and U.S.-Mexico relations, Corchado has extensive experience reporting stories on both sides of the border.

Palestinian journalists Anas Baba, a reporter for National Public Radio (NPR), and Shrouq Aila, an independent producer and photographer, are winners of the 2026 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. In making their selection for the award, the 2026 Nieman Fellows recognized the journalists’ outstanding work, unwavering commitment to journalism and exceptional courage reporting from an ongoing conflict. In a statement, the fellows said: “Working amid sustained Israeli military assault, mass forced displacement, a catastrophic famine and the consequent collapse of civilian infrastructure, Anas Baba and Shrouq Aila have continued to produce rigorous on-the-ground journalism that documents the human consequences of war with accuracy, independence and care.”

Recipients of the 2026 Lukas Prize Project Awards, presented jointly by Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, include Jeff Hobbs, winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for “Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America,” William Dalrymple, winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize for “The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World” and the two J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award winners: danah boyd for “Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the U.S. Census” and Karim Zidan for “In the Shadow of the Cage.” Rich Benjamin is the Lukas Book Prize finalist for “Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History” and Siddharth Kara is the Lynton History Prize finalist for “The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery.” 

In addition to presenting annual journalism awards, the Nieman Foundation occasionally organizes conferences for journalists based around a central theme. In November 2019, the Nieman Foundation and the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE) co-hosted “Covering Climate Change,” an intensive training workshop for journalists on covering climate change and related issues.

Together with University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Nieman made co-hosted the 2020 Campaign Journalism Conference for journalists covering the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The training took place in April 2019 in Chicago. In March 2018, Nieman hosted “Covering Nuclear Issues: A Workshop for Journalists,” a three-day conference that brought a diverse group of reporters, academics, researchers and practitioners together to help journalists deepen their reporting skills and expand their thinking around nuclear issues. And in March 2017, the Nieman Foundation presented another workshop for journalists, “Covering Housing.”

Nieman additionally organized and hosted “Power: Accountability and Abuse,” a two-day celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes in September 2016 that featured Pulitzer-winning performances and discussions centered on excellence in journalism and the arts.

The Nieman Foundation also hosts the Christopher J. Georges Conference on College Journalism for student journalists each spring.