Thomas L. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner for The New York Times, became the newspaper's foreign affairs columnist on the Op-Ed page in January 1995. He had been the chief economic correspondent in The Times' Washington bureau since January 1994. From November 1992 until December 1993, he was the chief White House correspondent, and from January 1989 until November 1992, the chief diplomatic correspondent.

Mr. Friedman joined The Times in May 1981 as a general assignment business reporter, specializing in OPEC and oil-related news. In April 1982, he was appointed Beirut bureau chief, a post he took up six weeks before the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Over the next 26 months he covered the massacre at the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps, the bombings of the American embassy and Marine headquarters, the P.L.O. split, and the Israeli withdrawal from Beirut.

In June 1984, Mr. Friedman was transferred from Beirut to Jerusalem, where he became the Israel bureau chief, serving until February 1988. After a leave of absence, until January 1989, he became chief diplomatic correspondent. During his tour there, lasting until May 1981, he covered the coup in Turkey as well as the Iran-Iraq war.

Born in Mineneapolis on July 20, 1953, Mr. Friedman received a B.A. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in 1975. As an undergraduate, he spent semesters abroad at the American University in Cairo and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; he also took part in a summer internship in intelligence analysis sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington. After receiving his B.S., Mr. Friedman attended St. Antony's College, Oxford, on a Marshall Scholarship. In 1978, he received a master of philosophy degree in modern Middle East studies from Oxford.

Mr. Friedman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel). He has also received the 1987 New Israel Fund Award for Outstanding Reporting From Israel; the 1985 Marine Corps Historical Foundation Award, for writing on the history of the Marines; the 1984 New York Newspaper Guild Page One Award; the 1982 George Polk Award; the 1982 Livingston Award for Young Journalists, and the 1980 Overseas Press Club Award.

His book From Beirut to Jerusalem, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1989, won the 1989 National Book Award for nonfiction. Mr. Friedman also wrote the text for the photographer Micha Bar-Am's book, Israel: A Photobiography, published in 1998 by Simon & Schuster. His most recent book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, was published in 1999 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. It has been translated into more than 20 languages and won the 1999 Overseas Press Club Award for the best book on foreign policy.

Mr. Friedman, who is married and has two daughters, lives in Bethesda, MD.