Gardiner Harris

In South Asia, his stories on New Delhi’s air pollution led to a profound change in local attitudes about its dangers, and his stories on sanitation led to a conclave at the United Nations General Assembly. In Washington, his public health stories led to the withdrawal of dozens of childhood cough-and-cold medicines and to federal legislation mandating the disclosure of payments by drug makers to doctors.

Before joining The Times in 2003, Mr. Harris was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering the pharmaceutical industry. His investigations there led to what was then the largest fine in the history of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Before joining The Journal in 1999, Mr. Harris was the Appalachian reporter for The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., from 1995 to 1998. In 1999, he won the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative journalism and the George Polk Award for environmental reporting after revealing that coal companies deliberately and illegally exposed miners to toxic levels of coal dust, causing hundreds of deaths annually. Mr. Harris’s stories showed that Kentucky’s governor at the time had been among the coal operators who cheated on dust tests.

Mr. Harris was The Courier-Journal’s police reporter from 1993 to 1995, when his investigations led to criminal charges being filed against the police chief of Jefferson County, where Louisville is. The chief was fired.

Mr. Harris attended two high schools, Princeton High School in Princeton, N.J., a public school, and Trinity School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which is private. In Princeton he played football, and at Trinity was captain of the swimming team; he sang in the choir and was active in theater at both schools. Mr. Harris graduated from Yale University and currently lives in Chevy Chase, Md. He has a wife and two children.