Costa Rican Computer Engineer Lands Pulitzer Prize

A computer engineer from Costa Rica has become the first “Tico” (a colloquial term for a native Costa Rican) to win a Pulitzer Prize.

As a data expert for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Rigoberto Carvajal Pérez, 31, won the prize by being part group that exposed the Panama Papers scandal. The investigation was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting.

Carvajal’s role was to transform data from the flat Offshore Leaks database into a web application that allowed journalists to explore the networks of the offshore world.

Carvajal graduated as a computer engineer from the Costa Rica Institute of Technology, and holds a Master’s degree in Database Technology from Cenfotec University.