Professor David Colquhoun
David Colquhoun, FRS (b. 1936) is a British pharmacologist at University College London (UCL). He has contributed to the general theory of receptor and synaptic mechanisms of single ion channel function. He previously held the A.J. Clark chair of Pharmacology at UCL, and was the Hon. Director of the Wellcome Laboratory for Molecular Pharmacology. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1985 and an honorary fellow of UCL in 2004. Colquhoun runs the website DC's Improbable Science, which is critical of pseudoscience, particularly alternative medicine, and managerialism.
Colquhoun has been an outspoken critic of pseudoscience and scientific fraud for many years. He has written extensively on the topic, including articles in Natureand The Guardian. He is particularly critical of alternative medicine, and of the decision of a number of UK universities to offer science degrees incorporating courses in complementary and alternative medicine such as homeopathy and acupuncture, stating that they are "anti-science" and that "universities that run them should be ashamed of themselves." His interest in inference extends to methods that are used to assess and manage science, and critical assessment of research "metrics".In December 2009, Colquhoun won a Freedom of Information judgement, after a three-year campaign, requiring the University of Central Lancashire to release details of their BSc course in homeopathy.
At the Festival, Professor Colquhoun will be delivering a discussion about the privatisation in the NHS and the doors that it is opening for quackery.
