Malcolm Browne, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter whose four-decade career included covering the Vietnam War — and taking one of the most memorable photos of the conflict — and a second act as a science writer, died Monday in Hanover, N.H. He was 81.

The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his wife.

When a Buddhist monk set himself on fire in 1963 in protest of the government of South Vietnam, Browne was the only reporter there, and he captured the stunning moment in a photograph.

In 1964, while working for The Associated Press, Browne shared the Pulitzer for international reporting with David Halberstam, who was covering the war for The Times.