Mr. Shadid, former correspondent for The New York Times and The Washington Post and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, worked on a book entitled Baghdadat: Iraq's Capital Before and After War--an exploration of the city, its changes and its future after occupation. Prior to joining The Washington Post, Mr. Shadid worked for The Boston Globe, where he covered diplomacy and the State Department, and for The Associated Press He graduated in 1990 from the University of Wisconsin with a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science and later studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo. From 1993-1994, he attended the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where he was in the Middle East Studies program.