Skoler Awarded Morris Memorial Lectureship By Nieman Foundation

Michael Skoler, foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, has been awarded the 17th annual Joe Alex Morris Jr. Memorial Lectureship by the Nieman Foundation.

Awarded annually to an American foreign correspondent or commentator on foreign affairs, the lectureship was created in 1981 by family, classmates, and friends to honor Joe Alex Morris Jr., a 1949 graduate of Harvard who was killed in 1979 in Teheran while covering the Iranian revolution for The Los Angeles Times. Previous Morris lecturers include Flora Lewis, Eric Sevareid, Peter Jennings, R.W. Apple Jr., and Deborah Amos.

Michael Skoler began reporting in 1982, after leaving the French wine business and buying a book titled How to Be a Freelance Writer. His work in print, radio, and television has received numerous honors, including two duPont-Columbia Silver Batons, a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, and a Gold Medal at the International Radio Festival of New York.

Skoler was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in 1992-93 and a Macy Fellow at WGBH television in 1987. He is currently a Frank Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business Administration.

Skoler spent the last decade working for National Public Radio (NPR). As a science correspondent, he captivated NPR listeners with a storytelling style that made everything from physics to biotechnology comprehensible. When he reported the inside story of how a computer virus shut down the Internet in 1989, the National Security Agency ordered cassette copies of the piece. When claims of cold fusion promised limitless power, Skoler made fun of the hoopla by creating a call-in show for would-be fusion scientists.

After his Nieman Fellowship, Skoler moved to Nairobi to serve as NPR's Africa correspondent. His four years in Africa began with reporting on the U.N. intervention in Somalia and ended with coverage of the civil war in Zaire. Skoler was awarded a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton for his stories on the Rwandan genocide and another silver baton for his role in NPR's team coverage of South Africa's first free elections.

Skoler's earlier experience included writing a daily syndicated radio show for CBS, television reporting for WGBH, and freelance writing for magazines ranging from Glamour to American Health and Science Illustrated. He also traveled and wrote for the popular Let's Go travel guides. He has taught and lectured on journalism both in the US and abroad. He is currently earning an M.B.A. at the University of Virginia.