About Paul Salopek

Paul Salopek (born February 9, 1962 in Barstow, California)[1] is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning writer. Salopek was raised in central Mexico.[2] He reported for the Chicago Tribune from 1996 until April 30, 2009, writing about Africa, the Balkans, Central Asia and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He worked for National Geographic from 1992-1995, visiting Chad, Sudan, Senegal, Niger, Mali, and Nigeria.[3] The October 1995 cover story for National Geographic was Salopek\s piece on Africa\s mountain gorillas. He reported on U.S.-Mexico border issues for the El Paso Times. In 1990, he was Gannett News Service\s bureau chief in Mexico City.[4] Salopek received a degree in environmental biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1984.[1][3][5] Salopek has worked off and on as a commercial fisherman, most recently with the scallop fleet out of New Bedford, Massachusetts