The Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards

Excellence in broadcast journalism

For 40 years, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards have recognized excellence in broadcast journalism at Columbia University. Created by Jessie Ball duPont in 1942 as a tribute to the journalistic integrity and public-mindedness of her husband, Alfred I. duPont, these awards are regarded today as the most prestigious prizes in broadcast news, the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes, which are also administered at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

The duPont-Columbia Awards bring the best in broadcast journalism to professional and public attention and honor those who produce it. The duPont Awards engender a collective spirit for the industry and inform the public of the contributions news organizations make to their communities and to the nation as a whole.

Winners of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards receive gold or silver batons designed by the late American architect Louis I. Kahn. The batons are inscribed with the famous observation about the power of television by the late Edward R. Murrow:

"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box."
(Address to the Radio and Television News Directors Association, Chicago, October 15, 1958.)