David Willman (born October 18, 1956) is an American
Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist.
Biography
Early life and education
Willman was born in California and graduated from
San Jose State University with a
B.A. in Journalism in 1978 after studying Journalism at Pasadena City College.[1]
Career
His work has prompted major public reforms, including a ban in 2005 of drug company payments to government scientists at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Willman's investigative reports in the Los Angeles Times also led to the March 2000 safety withdrawal of
Rezulin, a Type 2 Diabetes drug that grossed more than $2 billion in sales.
Earlier in his career, Willman covered local, state and national politics, including presidential campaigns in 1980, 1984 and 1988.
Willman has worked from
Washington D.C., and throughout California. His investigative reports in the 1990s exposed defective construction within tunnels of the Los Angeles subway,[2][3][4] along with defective welds at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum,[5] prompting structural overhauls.[6] Within the subway, sections of the tunnel walls had been built with concrete thinner than the required minimum of 12 inches. At the Coliseum, the faulty welds had helped support the facility's cantilevered press box, suspended over hundreds of spectator seats. All corrective subway repairs were ultimately made at the expense of the contractors responsible for the defective work, and leaders of both projects said the structures were safe.[7][8] He currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland.
In awarding Willman the 2001
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, the organization cited "his pioneering expose of seven unsafe prescription drugs that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and an analysis of the policy reforms that had reduced the agency’s effectiveness."[11]
In 2004, Willman won the Worth Bingham Prize, awarded for "investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is ill-served." Willman had brought to light drug company payments—including consulting fees and awards of stock and stock options—to senior scientists at the
National Institutes of Health. When he announced a ban of such future payments, NIH Director
Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., credited Willman's reports in the Los Angeles Times.
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984