Sir Harry Evans Fellow Scoops Pulitzer Prize

Our first Sir Harry Evans Fellow, Waylon Cunningham, is part of a Reuters reporting team to win a Pulitzer Prize - the most prestigious awards in journalism.

Waylon, from Texas, was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowship in Investigative Journalism in 2023.

He worked on investigative projects from the Reuters newsroom in London, whilst receiving mentorship and support from our Institute of Advanced Study.

Investigating Elon Musk’s business empire

During the nine-month Fellowship, Waylon helped uncover systemic harms to customers, workers and lab animals at Elon Musk’s companies.

The body of work, titled The Musk Industrial Complex, won the Pulitzer Prize in the National Reporting category.

It marks the first time Reuters has won a Pulitzer in the national category and follows the series receiving a Polk Award earlier this year.

In the reports, Waylon and his Reuters colleagues documented a rising toll of injuries and deaths of workers at rocket builder SpaceX and of laboratory animals at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-implant company.

And they revealed that Musk’s groundbreaking electric-car company, Tesla, covered up dangerous defects in steering and suspension parts; rigged the driving-range estimates in its cars; invaded drivers’ privacy by sharing sensitive images recorded by their vehicles; and made Tesla Insurance customers wait months for claim payouts.

The reporting led to calls for action from US lawmakers.

The full award-winning team is: Marisa Taylor, Steve Stecklow, Norihiko Shirouzu, Hyunjoo Jin, Rachael Levy, Kevin Krolicki, Marie Mannes, Waylon Cunningham and Koh Gui Qing.

Rosa is the second recipient of the Fellowship, a partnership between Reuters, Durham University and Tina Brown CBE, award-winning journalist and widow of acclaimed newspaper and Durham graduate Sir Harry Evans.