Although he attended Harvard University (1908–1911; 1914–1915) and allegedly completed all coursework for an undergraduate degree in philosophy, Laurence "struggled academically and financially" throughout his studies; according to biographer Vincent Kiernan, his institutional records contained "multiple complaints that he failed to repay loans from the university and individuals," while "holds on his account repeatedly interrupted his studies."

Following a September 1915 skirmish with roommate Benjamin Stolberg, Laurence was found guilty of assault and battery before being "released without having to spend any time in jail.

(Laurence maintained in a later Columbia University oral history that his degree was not conferred due to his debt and a personality conflict with the dean of Harvard College.)

[6] On May 5, 1940, Laurence published a front-page exclusive in the New York Times on successful attempts in isolating uranium-235 which were reported in Physical Review, and outlined many (somewhat hyperbolic) claims about the possible future of nuclear power.

[7] He had assembled it in part out of his own fear that Nazi Germany was attempting to develop atomic energy, and had hoped the article would galvanize a U.S. effort.

[9] In 1945, Major General Leslie Groves approached Jack Lockhart, Assistant Director of The Censorship Office, to serve as press release writer and official historian of the Manhattan Project.

In this capacity he was also the author of many of the first official press releases about nuclear weapons, including some delivered by the Department of War and President Harry S. Truman.

As part of his work related to the Project, he also interviewed the airmen who flew on the mission to drop the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

Laurence himself flew aboard the B-29 The Great Artiste, which served as a blast instrumentation aircraft, for the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

[12] US military encouraged the journalist William L. Laurence of The New York Times to write articles dismissing the reports of radiation sickness as part of Japanese efforts to undermine American morale.

[citation needed] For his 1945 coverage of the atomic bomb, beginning with the eyewitness account from Nagasaki, he won a second Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1946.