Following nominations from the public and deliberations from our editorial team, The Skeptic is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 Ockham Awards:

Skeptical Activism: Dr Cyriac Abby Philips

Dr Cyriac Abby Philips is a doctor and expert on the harms caused by alternative medicine in India, who has spent over a decade highlighting the dangers of homeopathy, herbal remedies, and superstition in India, sharing his expertise with more than 430,000 followers across X, Instagram and YouTube.

His work in countering health misinformation has been featured across the national and international media – resulting in campaigns of harassment and litigation by supporters of India’s powerful herbal and homeopathic industries. In 2019, he published a paper documenting the death of a patient from acute liver failure due to heavy metals and toxic compounds in their dietary supplement – however, after legal threats from the supplement’s manufacturer, Herbalife, the paper was retracted by its publishing journal. The study was reinstated following pressure from Retraction Watch, and Dutch microbiologist and previous Ockham award winner Elisabeth Bik.

In February 2022, Dr Philips was accused of professional misconduct by the Kerala State Medical Council, over an interview in which he described Ayurvedic medicine as ‘pseudoscience’. The medical council served Dr Philips notice after India’s powerful Union Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) claimed his comments amounted to defamation, and that by denigrating ayurveda he was causing a split in public opinion. Eight months later, the charges were dropped.  More recently, in 2024 Dr Philips faced further defamation threats from another multinational Ayurveda company, resulting in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology withdrawing Dr Philips’ paper on the company’s products.

On the decision to give Dr Philips the 2025 Ockham award, Michael Marshall, editor of The Skeptic, said: “One of the most important roles of science communicators is to protect the public from dangerous health misinformation. That task becomes all the more crucial when that misinformation isn’t just about wasting money and giving false hope, but where there is risk of serious and irreparable harm to the patient. Dr Philips has continued that work, even as alternative medicine companies with deep pockets and powerful political connections have tried to silence him.

“For continuing to stand up for science and for the best interests of patients, undeterred by a barrage of legal threats and intimidation, Dr Cyriac Abby Philips is a very worthy recipient of the 2025 Ockham Award for Skeptical Activism”.

Other past Ockham winners include Dr Flint Dibble, the BBC’s Disinformation Unit, Dr Elisabeth Bik, Dr Natália Pasternak, and Professor Edzard Ernst.

Rusty Razor Winner: Reform UK

Reform UK have publicly stated their opposition to Net Zero and climate change mitigation policies, based on their belief that CO2 from human activity does not contribute to climate change – a claim made explicitly by their Deputy leader, Richard Tice. Meanwhile, Reform’s Greater Lincolnshire mayor, Andrea Jenkyns, claimed that climate change does not exist, but is being used as a “money-making racket” for industries, while other Reform councillors have called climate change a hoax and that “there is no climate crisis”.

As a result, Reform have claimed they would oppose Net Zero policies and cut all subsidies for renewable energy. Research from climate change group DeSmog found in 2024 that Reform UK has received £2.3m in donations from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations, including significant donations from Terence Mordaunt – a trustee and donor to climate change denialist charity the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Reform UK’s party conference last month also featured a speech from Dr Aseem Malhotra, in which he claimed “mRNA jabs have likely killed or seriously harmed millions of people” because the World Health Organization had been “captured” by Bill Gates, and that it was “highly likely that the Covid vaccines have been a significant factor in the cancer of members of the royal family”. Reform’s 2024 party conference saw Richard Tice calling for a full inquiry into the “serious problem” of thousands of people dying from the side-effects of the Covid vaccine.

Most recently, in an LBC interview in September Nigel Farage compared bogus autism and paracetamol claims to the thalidomide scandal, questioning the safety of the drug, while also making false claims that Eastern European migrants were kidnapping and eating swans from London parks.

The Skeptic Editor Michael Marshall said: “While the political positions Reform UK put forward are outside of the scope and remit of The Skeptic and our awards, their positions on science are not. On current polling, Reform UK is the party with the most support in the country, yet they have shown that they have no problem with spreading pseudoscientific misinformation that aligns with the interests of their donors, no interest in vetting their members and candidates for holding dangerously misguided views about science and health, and no issue with fostering and indulging all manner of conspiracy theories if they think there’s a vote in it. All of which makes them a threat to science and reason, and deserving of being singled out as winners of our 2025 Rusty Razor award.”

Previous Rusty Razor winners have included Elon Musk, Dr Aseem Malhotra, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Dr Mike Yeadon, Dr Didier Raoult, Andrew Wakefield, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Winners were announced live at QED in Manchester on October 25th.