A Times Veteran Joins the International Desk

The homecoming is finally official: We are happy to announce that Somini Sengupta is returning to the International desk as an international correspondent based in New York. She will focus at first on the global food supply but will also tackle news, Live and a wide range of other topics as they emerge. Somini, who joined The Times as a Metro reporter before taking on roles on International, Business and Climate, will be deployed as needed, ready to jump in and report alongside our colleagues all over the world.

Somini already dipped her toe back into the International pool in New York as a trusted editor. Most recently, she's shown her ability to pivot to the other side, taking on the Live blog and stories from multiple regions. And she's just back from a busy stint in India.

As a correspondent, Somini has reported from dozens of countries, including many conflict zones. She was the bureau chief for South Asia and West Africa, and she briefly covered Silicon Valley for Business before returning to International as the United Nations correspondent. She crossed the front line in Liberia, waving a white t-shirt for a dispatch about the last days of Charles Taylor. From Bunia, she wrote about boys watching action movies . Reporting a magazine piece about a Maoist rebel camp in Nepal, she tore her anterior cruciate ligament on the first day of a nine-day hike and, yes, kept walking for eight days with a torn A.C.L.

Later, Somini helped pioneer the international climate beat on the Climate desk. There, she reported on the inequity of extreme heat and Calcutta's acute climate risks . She focused on solutions: Ugandan coffee growers resurrecting a wild variety of coffee, heat insurance in India, artisanal chocolate in Brazil , the global spread of Chinese green technology . She ran the climate newsletter and conducted live interviews for our Climate Forward conference with presidents and prime ministers of Kenya, Norway, Australia and Guyana.

She is a decorated journalist with multiple awards, including a Polk for foreign reporting, a Foreign Press Award for the climate newsletter and a Newswomen's Club award for Lifetime Achievement . She also wrote a book about India 's youth and is currently writing a second one about climate.

Born in Calcutta, Somini grew up mostly in suburban Southern California. She played bassoon, clarinet and violin as a kid and almost pursued a career in music. Instead, she went to U.C. Berkeley and considered becoming a professor of impenetrable literary theory before being seduced by the news.

Please give a round of applause to Somini.

- Phil, Greg and Alison