American University of Beirut

Kai Bird is an American author and columnist, best known for his works on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, United States-Middle East political relations, and his biographies of political figures. He won a Pulitzer Prize for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Some of Mr. Bird's other literary works include The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms; Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956–1978; The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames. In January 2017, Bird was appointed Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer at CUNY Graduate Center's Leon Levy Center for Biography in New York City. He received his BA in history from Carleton College ('73) and an MS in journalism from Northwestern University ('75). After graduating from Carleton, Bird received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which enables students to do a year of independent study outside the United States. He used the fellowship to do a photojournalism project in Yemen.​