Since 2012, The Skeptic has had the pleasure of awarding the Ockham Awards – our annual awards celebrating the very best work from within the skeptical community. The awards were founded because we wanted to draw attention to those people who work hard to get a great message out. The Ockhams recognise the effort and time that have gone into the community’s favourite campaigns, activism, blogs, podcasts, and outstanding contributors to the skeptical cause.
Nominations for the 2022 Ockham Awards are now open! Simply complete the nomination form to submit your nominations.
Last year’s Ockham winner was Dr Elisabeth Bik. As part of her work identifying fraudulent, mistaken, and plagiarised research, Dr Bik has identified thousands of academic papers with evidence of issues including image manipulation, leading to hundreds of papers being retracted. Along with other researchers, Bik identified a potential paper mill in China that was generating academic articles with fake research for students who needed to publish an article to complete their studies.
Other past Ockham winners include Dr Natália Pasternak, Professor Edzard Ernst, the European Skeptics Podcast, Say WHY To Drugs podcast, Britt Hermes, the Edinburgh Skeptics’ annual Skeptics on the Fringe event, and more.
While we recognise the best in skepticism, our awards are also an opportunity to highlight the danger posed by promoters of pseudoscience with our Rusty Razor award. The Rusty Razor is designed to spotlight individuals or organisations who have been prominent promoters of unscientific ideas within the last year.
Last year’s Rusty Razor was another particularly topical one, Dr Mike Yeadon is the former vice-president of Pfizer’s allergy and respiratory research unit, who has since become a hero of the Covid conspiracy theorist movement for his anti-vaccination scaremongering.
Previous Rusty Razor winners have included Dr Didier Raoult for his promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, Andrew Wakefield for his ongoing promotion of anti-vaxx misinformation, and Gwyneth Paltrow for her pseudoscience-peddling wellness empire, Goop.
One of the most important elements of our awards are that the nominations come from you – the skeptical community. It is that time again, we ask you to tell us who you think deserves to receive the Skeptic of the Year award, and who deserves to receive the Rusty Razor.
Nominations are open now and will close on October 15th. Winners will be chosen by our editorial board, and they will be announced at QED in Manchester on October 29th.
