Edzard Ernst

Edzard Ernst
Edzard Ernst
Born (1948-01-30) 30 January 1948 (age 76)
Wiesbaden, Germany
Alma materLudwig Maximilian University of Munich
Known forScientific study of alternative medicine
AwardsJohn Maddox Prize 2015
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Exeter
Edzard Ernst's voice
recorded September 2015
Websiteedzardernst.com

Edzard Ernst (born 30 January 1948) is a retired British-German academic physician and researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine. He was Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, the world's first such academic position in complementary and alternative medicine.

Ernst served as chairman of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) at the University of Vienna,[1] but left this position in 1993 to set up the department of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter in England. He became director of complementary medicine of the Peninsula Medical School (PMS) in 2002. Ernst was the first occupant of the Laing chair in Complementary Medicine, retiring in 2011. He was born and trained in Germany, where he began his medical career at a homeopathic hospital in Munich,[2] and since 1999 has been a British citizen.

Ernst is the founder of two medical journals: Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies (of which he was editor-in-chief until it was discontinued in 2016) and Perfusion.[3] Ernst's writing appeared in a regular column in The Guardian, where he reviewed news stories about complementary medicine from an evidence-based medicine perspective.[4] Since his research began on alternative modalities, Ernst has been seen as "the scourge of alternative medicine" for publishing critical research that exposes methods that lack documentation of efficacy.[5] In 2015 he was awarded the John Maddox Prize, sponsored jointly by Sense about Science and Nature, for courage in standing up for science.[6]

  1. ^ Davis, Nicola (19 October 2014). "Edzard Ernst: outspoken professor of complementary medicine". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference interview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference sim was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Edzard Ernst". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Con? was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Edzard Ernst awarded John Maddox Prize for science". Sense About Science. Retrieved 16 December 2015.