Two Rice Scholars Earn Pulitzer Prizes

Fall 2025
By Kat Cosley Trigg

Leah Binkovitz, a sociology Ph.D. student at Rice and former writer and editor at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, was part of the Houston Chronicle editorial board awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. The series, titled “The Tracks We Leave Behind,” exposed how train blockages in Houston disproportionately affect working-class and minority neighborhoods, a problem often dismissed as routine inconvenience.

Binkovitz said her work on the series was deeply informed by her academic research and time at Rice. As a graduate researcher, she collaborated with sociology faculty on projects exploring segregation, neighborhood barriers, and how residents navigate physical and social boundaries. “I always hope my journalism can help us see each other and our experiences more clearly, so we feel invested in each other’s well-being,” Binkovitz said.

Daisy Chung ’14, a biosciences and visual arts alumna who has contributed to Rice Magazine, was part of the Reuters team awarded the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for a series on the fentanyl trade between China and the United States. As a visual journalist, Chung’s illustrations helped break down complex chemistry and public health issues for global audiences. “[T]his award feels like an affirmation that visual storytelling is essential to investigative reporting,” she said. Chung said her science background came full circle during the yearlong fentanyl investigation, where she became the team’s point person on decoding chemical structures. “It inspired the first graphic story in the series — a visual breakdown of the chemistry behind fentanyl production.”