Mike Toner

Mike Toner (born March 17, 1944) was the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism.

Toner was born in Le Mars, Iowa to Irish American parents.

Toner graduated from both the University of Iowa (Bachelors in Journalism and Mass Communication, 1966) and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1967.

In 2012 Mike Toner received the Gene S. Stuart Award for his "responsible and entertaining writing about the inherent problems associated with shipwreck and underwater archaeology."Titled, 'The Battle for the Dunkirk Schooner,’ this piece is "an ethically responsible and engaging view on the issues of antiquity ownership and the dangers of raising a shipwreck." Through this work, he has "brought an archaeological find and preservation issues to the attention of the public in a way all archaeologists can be proud of." This is Toner’s second Gene S. Stuart Award. The first one he was awarded was in 2001 at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 1993 he won the Pulitzer Prize in the category of American Archaeology for his series about organisms and their resistance to antibiotics and pesticides, entitled 'When Bugs Fight Back'.

In 1980, Toner nearly fell out of a helicopter while taking pictures of the Mount St. Helens eruption.Four years later he encouraged a helicopter pilot to dip the aircraft closer to red-hot lava – just so that he would be able to get a better photograph of the molten flood.

Toner spent three weeks doing research in Peru for an ongoing five-part series titled 'Past in Peril,' highlighting the evils of smuggling ancient artifacts from their native sites. The Amazon jungles he trekked through were often in cocaine-producing regions.

Toner was one of the judges of the 2014 Writing Contest, held on April 27, 2015 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.).