Ten New Fellows Elected to Committee for Skeptical Inquiry | Center for Inquiry

November 23, 2020

Extraordinary Skeptics Advancing Science and Reason in the Misinformation Era

In a time when misinformation, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories saturate our media and erode trust in science and reality, the role of the public skeptic has never been more critical. Science denial, alternative facts, and magical thinking test the very integrity of society and threaten the health and freedoms of everyone. Those at the vanguard for the advance of science, reason, and critical thinking are indispensable. 

It is those individuals who we honor as Fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. The ten remarkable men and women elected for 2020 represent a wide range of fields and areas of expertise, each making meaningful contributions to the promotion of scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. 

The new inductees join a venerable group of distinguished scientists, scholars, activists, authors, and creators, including Richard Dawkins, E. O. Wilson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Elizabeth Loftus, Bill Nye, Susan Blackmore, Steven Pinker, Eugenie Scott, Steven Novella, and Susan Haack. Founding Fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry include renowned scientists, academics, and science writers such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardner, Paul Kurtz, Ray Hyman, Philip J. Klass, Sidney Hook, and of course the amazing James Randi, who died just this past October at age 92. 

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) is the publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and its mission is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. CSI is a program of the Center for Inquiry.

Introducing the 2020 Fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry!

Jann Johnson Bellamy: Tracker of Legislative Alchemy

Bellamy is an attorney in Tallahassee, Florida, and a contributor to the website Science-Based Medicine, where she tracks state and federal bills that would allow pseudoscience in health care. In 2006, she left the active practice of law to form a nonprofit to educate Floridians about “alternative” healthcare claims. She is one of the founders of the Society for Science-Based Medicine (SfSBM), dedicated to providing accurate information about complementary and alternative medicine, which has now become a part of the Center for Inquiry. 

Kenny Biddle: Inspector of Gadgets

Biddle is a science enthusiast in Philadelphia who investigates claims of paranormal experiences with a particular focus on the use and misuse of media and technology to provide “evidence” of the paranormal. He promotes science, critical thinking, and skepticism through his column at Skeptical Inquirer, his blog I Am Kenny Biddle, and his YouTube channel. He frequently hosts workshops on how to deconstruct paranormal photography and solve mysteries at both science and paranormal themed events, and he hosts the live Q&A podcast, The Skeptical Help Bar, which promotes open discussion between people of different beliefs. 

Timothy Caulfield: Goop Buster

Caulfield is Canada Research Chair in Health Law & Policy, Professor in the Faculty of Law and School of Public Health, as well as Research Director of the Health Law Institute, all at the University of Alberta. He is the author of the newly updated book The Science of Celebrity…or, Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything? And host of the acclaimed Netflix documentary series challenging mass-marketed health trends, A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, which received the award for Non-Fiction: Science & Technology at the 2019 RealScreen Summit Awards. 

William M. London: Consumer Health Crusader

A professor of public health at California State University in Los Angeles, London teaches and writes about the promotion of health-related misinformation, sensationalism, superstition, pseudoscience, fraud, and quackery. He is the Consumer Health columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, the editor of Quackwatch’s e-newsletter Consumer Health Digest, and cohost of the Credential Watch website (a Quackwatch affiliate). He was cofounder and first president of the Ohio Council Against Health Fraud and later served as president of the National Council Against Health Fraud. This past year he has spearheaded the Center for Inquiry’s online Coronavirus Resource Center and Dubious COVID-19 Treatments and Preventives website.

Matthew C. Nisbet: Critical Communicator

Nisbet is professor of communication, public policy, and urban affairs at Northeastern University in Boston and a regular columnist at Issues in Science and Technology magazine. He is a leading researcher in the international fields of science communication and environmental politics. He was editor-in-chief of the three-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication, which was a finalist for the American Publishers’ 2019 PROSE Awards in the reference/science category, and is past editor-in-chief of the journal Environmental Communication. Nisbet’s “The Science of Science Communication” column has appeared regularly in Skeptical Inquirer since 2016. His new column there is “The Examined Life,” which provides “a skeptical dose of anti-self-help advice.”

Natalia Pasternak: Brazilian Skeptic Star

Pasternak is a microbiologist with a PhD from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where she studied the molecular genetics of bacteria. In 2018 she became the first president of the Instituto Questão de Ciência (IQC; Question of Science Institute), promoting scientific evidence in public policy. In combating the prevalence of coronavirus misinformation in Brazil, Pasternak has become a highly visible and passionate advocate for science and reason, making frequent appearances on television and writing a weekly science column in a Rio de Janeiro newspaper. She and Carlos Orsi wrote “Believing the Science is not Understanding the Science: Brazilian Surveys” for the March/April 2020 issue of Skeptical Inquirer.

James Underdown: Hollywood’s Reality Check

Underdown is founder and chair of the Center for Inquiry Investigations Group (CFIIG), which investigates fringe science, paranormal, and extraordinary claims from a rational, scientific viewpoint and offers $250,000 to anyone who can prove paranormal or supernatural ability under controlled test conditions. Underdown is also the longtime executive director of the Center for Inquiry West, based in Los Angeles, where he promotes science-based skepticism, reason, freedom of inquiry, and secular values. He is one of the cohosts of the Center for Inquiry’s flagship podcast, Point of Inquiry, and writes the “Ask the Atheist” blog on CFI’s website. He also runs CFI West’s Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater. In addition to his skeptic credentials, the multitalented Underdown is a writer, lead singer of a rock group, comedic actor and entertainer, and a frequent host at CFI and CSI events. 

Joseph Uscinski: Conspiracy Theory Theorist

Uscinski is associate professor of political science at the University of Miami, studying public opinion and mass media with a focus on conspiracy theories and misinformation. He is coauthor of American Conspiracy Theories and editor of Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them (both from Oxford University Press), and his most recent book is Conspiracy Theories: A Primer (2020). He writes newspaper op-ed articles and makes frequent media appearances discussing popular and contemporary conspiracy theories, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, QAnon, and fake news. In 2015, he organized one of the first international conferences on conspiracy theory research, drawing scholars from ten countries. He spoke at CSICon 2018 and has published two Skeptical Inquirer articles on how to think about conspiracy theories. 

Bertha Vazquez: Empowering Evolution Educators

Vazquez has been a science teacher in Miami-Dade County Public Schools since 1991. Working with Richard Dawkins, she has been director of the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), a program of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. Since its inception in April 2015, TIES has conducted over 200 innovative workshops, in person and online, for school teachers in all fifty states, providing science teachers at every grade level with the content knowledge and resources they need to effectively teach evolution and answer its critics. Vazquez’s vision, energy, and leadership has been instrumental to its success. Vazquez was the 2017 recipient of the National Association of Biology Teachers Evolution Education Award.

Mick West: Rabbit Hole Navigator

A science writer and skeptical investigator (and one-time video game programmer), West is the creator of the popular website Metabunk, which skeptically examines conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, UFOs, and the paranormal. His 2018 book Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect examined four of the most popular false conspiracy theories—chemtrails, 9/11 controlled demolition, false flags, and flat Earth—using his preferred debunking technique of clear communication based on respect, honestly, openness, and patience. In 2019 he started the podcast Tales from the Rabbit Hole to explore these themes via long-form interviews. As a former believer when growing up in a small town in England, West now applies that experience and sensitivity to his investigations, interactions, and writings. He now lives in Sacramento, California.