The John Maddox Prize is an international prize administered by Sense about Science in partnership with Nature. One or two individuals are recognised annually by the Prize for their work promoting sound science and evidence despite hostility. The prize was started in 2012 in commemoration of John Maddox, former editor-in-chief of Nature, who was distinguished in his advancement of science for the public interest. Winners receive a monetary award and an announcement is published in Nature.
In 2012, the John Maddox Prize was awarded to British psychiatrist Simon Wessely and Chinese science writer Shi-min Fang.[1] [2] Wessely was recognised for continuing his research on Myalgic Encaphalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome despite criticism from patient groups, and Fang was recognised for his work exposing pseudoscience and fraud as a popular science writer in China. There have been objections to Wessely being awarded the prize, however, due to concerns about his quality of research.[3]
In 2013, British Neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt was awarded the John Maddox Prize for his influence on the evidence-based classification of drugs in the UK and elsewhere. He had faced adversity such as dismissal from his government position on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.[4] [5] [6]
In 2014, the John Maddox Prize was awarded to US writer and journalist Emily Willingham and Irish physicist and science writer David Robert Grimes.[7] Both winners are science writers who have communicated difficult science topics to the public despite intense criticism, and in Willingham's case, legal action.
In 2015, University of Exeter academic physician Edzard Ernst and University of Oxford nutrition scientist Susan Jebb shared the John Maddox Prize.[8] Ernst was awarded for applying evidence-based methodologies to research in complementary and alternative medicines, and for communicating this research despite severe hostility. Jebb was awarded for her work to promote evidence in public understandings of nutrition in the face of criticism and false claims of industry funding.
Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus was awarded the 2016 John Maddox Prize for persistence in researching and communicating the evidence behind false memory.[9]
In 2017, Japanese doctor and journalist Riko Muranaka won the John Maddox Prize for her work countering misinformation about the HPV vaccine with science and evidence, despite hostility including legal suits.[10]
In 2018, an early-career researcher John Maddox Prize was awarded to former naturopath Britt Hermes for promoting evidence-based medicine. Marine biologist Terry Hughes was also awarded the John Maddox Prize for his work documenting coral reef decline despite lawsuits and death threats.[11]
In 2019, the John Maddox Prize was awarded to Bambang Hero Saharjo, a professor of forestry and forest fires forensics at Bogor Agricultural University, for sharing his research findings as an expert witness for at least 500 forest fire cases in Indonesia since 2000 despite facing harassment, intimidation and lawsuits. The early career prize was awarded to Olivier Bernard, a pharmacist from Quebec, Canada who became the target of a smear campaign for challenging the use of high-dose vitamin C injections in cancer patients.[12]
2020's prize was awarded, for communicating the science behind COVID-19, to Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Salim S. Abdool Karim, director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa. Anne Abbott, a neurologist from the Central Clinical School at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia was awarded the early career prize for her perseverance in challenging unnecessary procedural treatment of carotid stenosis, which can lead to strokes.[13]
The 2021 prize was awarded to Elisabeth Bik for "outstanding work exposing widespread threats to research integrity in scientific papers".[14] [15] Mohammad Sharif Razai, from St George's, University of London, was awarded the early career prize for his work "tackling racial health inequalities; from vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minority groups, to revealing systemic racism as a fundamental cause and driver of adverse health outcomes".
In 2022, the John Maddox Prize was awarded to Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi, a biochemist at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, has been awarded the 2022 John Maddox Prize for engaging communities in conflict to research solutions to pollution in the oil fields of the Niger Delta.[16]
The 2023 prize was awarded to Canadian scientist Nancy Olivieri for "her communication of the importance of being open with patients about medical research". Olivieri lost her post at SickKids Hospital in Toronto after raising concerns about the drug deferiprone during a clinical trial of its use.[17] The early career prize went to American epidemiologist Chelsea Polis, a specialist in sexual and reproductive health issues, for challenging false claims in the marketing of a fertility tracking device, overcoming a lawsuit from the manufacturer.