Thomas Friedman will be the second speaker in the Hunter Lecture Series on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Tivoli. Mr. Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist for the The New York Times,  has written extensively on international affairs, including globalization, the Middle East, and climate change. His lecture will be focused on the themes of his most recent book, That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. 

Now in it’s fifth year, the George T. Hunter Lecture Series is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation and UTC.  The lecture series has provided a way for UTC students and faculty to engage around issues affecting the Chattanooga region. Over the past four years, speakers have included two Pulitzer Prize Winners, two Peabody Award Winners, two MacArthur Genius Fellows, four listed on the TIME 100 Most Influential People, and have collectively authored 12 best-selling books. Past speakers have included Doris Kearns Goodwin, David Brooks, Malcolm Gladwell, Mayor Cory Booker, Michelle Rhee and Michael Pollan.

“Thomas Friedman is among  a small number of public scholars in our nation whose mind can wrap around complex economic, social and political trends and bring them together in a new and integrated vision of what’s happening in the world,” said Dr. Grady Bogue, interim chancellor of UTC.  "He has an Olympic view, a talent for clear and informing writing and an a use of hard data illustration that brings home the themes  in his books and other writings. Bringing him to Chattanooga and promoting the debate of such critical issues are in complete agreement with UTC’s metropolitan mission of service.”

Mr. Friedman joined The New York Times in 1981 and was appointed Beirut bureau chief in 1982. In 1984 Mr. Friedman was transferred from Beirut to Jerusalem, where he served as Israel bureau chief until 1988. Mr. Friedman was awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon) and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel). Since 1996, Mr. Friedman has served as the foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times . He has also served as chief economic correspondent in the Washington bureau and the chief White House correspondent. 

Mr. Friedman is the author of six bestselling books, including From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the National Book Award and the Overseas Press Club in 1989; The World Is Flat(2005), and Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America (2008).

This lecture is brought to you by the Benwood Foundation in partnership with the Communications Department at UTC. All lectures are free and open to the public, no tickets necessary. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. and doors open at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.benwood.org.