Ian Urbina

Ian Urbina articles

Ian Urbina

Investigative Reporter and Director of The Outlaw Ocean Project

Washington, D.C.

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Ian Urbina, a former investigative reporter for the New York Times, is the director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on reporting about environmental and human rights crimes at sea.

He speaks English and Spanish.

  • Urbina was a member of the team of reporters that wrote a series in 2006 about diabetes, which received a public service award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ New York City chapter and a Society of Silurians award for science health reporting. The series was a finalist[43] for the Pulitzer Prize.
  • In 2008 Urbina was also a member of the team of reporters that broke the story about then-New York Governor, Eliot Spitzer and his use of prostitutes, a series of stories for which the Times won a Pulitzer in 2009.
  • In 2010, Urbina wrote a series called "Running in the Shadows" which focused on the sexual trafficking of minors and the growing number of young runaways in the United States. This series received the New York Press Club’s award for feature reporting.
  • In 2011, Urbina delivered the annual Kops Freedom of the Press lecture at Cornell University titled "Investigating the Natural Gas Drilling Boom" (video) "Drilling Down" also received a Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), "Best in Business" award.
  • In 2014, his story about OSHA and worker exposure to hazardous chemicals was a finalist in the Explanatory category for the Gerald Loeb Award. He was also on the Times team covering the death of thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh that was also a finalist for a Loeb Award that year in the international reporting category. 
  • In July, 2015, Urbina's "The Secret Life of Passwords" was nominated for an Emmy. 
  • In 2016, Urbina's series "The Outlaw Ocean" won various journalism awards, including the George Polk Awards for Foreign ReportingThe Maritime Foundation's Desmond Wettern Media Award for Best Journalistic Contribution, The Sigma Delta Chi Award for Foreign Correspondence from the Society of Professional Journalists, The Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Media Excellence,  The Best in Business Award for Feature Writing from the Society of Business Editors and Writers, and The Human Rights Press Award Online English Merit Award. The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) also awarded the series a prize in the Excellence in Digital News category, and an honorable mention in the Human Rights Reporting category. Photos from the series won The National Press Photographers Association's 2016 Award for Best Of Photojournalism Multimedia, and The Photojournalism/Documentary Award from Photo District News (PDN).  The series' videos won the National Edward R. Murrow Award for News Series.  The series was also a finalist for The Scripps Howard Award in Public Service Reporting,The Gerald Loeb Award in International Reporting and The Michael Kelly Award. The series won an honorable mention for TRACE International's Prize for Investigative Reporting for "Maritime 'Repo Men': A last resort for stolen ships", and won an honorable mention for The Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism given by the World Justice Project.
  • In 2019 The Outlaw Ocean was placed on Amazon’s List of Best Books of 2019 and The New York Times Best Seller List for Non-Fiction

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