Peter Ridd

Peter Vincent Ridd, hereafter Peter Ridd, was born on 25 December 1960 in South Molton UK, and moved to Australia in 1970 where he attended Innisfail State School. Peter Ridd is a physicist, an author, and a former professor at James Cook University (JCU), North Queensland, Australia. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from James Cook University - JCU (1978-1980), a Diploma of Education University of Queensland - UQ (1981), and worked as a School Teacher at Blackheath and Thornburgh College (1982-1983). Later, Peter Ridd obtained a PhD in Physics from JCU (1983-1988).At this time he also joined the Australian Institute of Marine Science. He started studying the Great Barrier Reef in 1984, mainly focusing onocean currents and the movement of sediment.

While teaching at James Cook University, he was the head of the Physics department from 2009 to 2016, and head of the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at that institution for 15 years.

With Piers Larcombe, Ridd wrote an opinion piece in November 2017, published in the January 2018 issue of Marine Pollution Bulletin, challenging the prevailing understanding of the state of the Great Barrier Reef, drawing attention to what he argued was a reproducibility crisis and certain specific papers relating to the state of the Great Barrier Reef, and recommending a new review body for policy science.

A Viewpoint article in rebuttal was printed in the April 2018 issue of Marine Pollution Bulletin bySchaffelke et al.

Ridd replied in a further article in the June 2019 issue.

Starting in April 2016, James Cook University took a number of disciplinary measures against Ridd, which culminated in Ridd being fired. JCU denied that the dismissal was over Ridd's views on climate. Ridd filed two crowdfunding lawsuits, the second over the dismissal.

On 16 April 2019, Ridd won the lawsuit, JCU being found to be in violation of the Fair Work Act 2009, and in September 2019 was awarded in excess of AU$1m, together with AU$125,000 pecuniary penalty.

While the two parties continue to disagree whether the case related to academic freedom, the ruling judge said "...was purely and simply about the proper construction of a clause in an enterprise agreement", although he also stated JCU had "not understood the whole concept of intellectual freedom".

JCU filed an appeal, and Ridd organised another crowdfunding round, for a total target (including two previous rounds of AU$100,000 and AU$160,000) of AU$1.5m. Ridd states that this excludes some $200,000 already spent by Ridd and his wife. By 13 October 2019 an additional $U$500,000had been raised.

Since 2015, Peter Ridd has been promoting the creating of a Centre for Quality Assurance in Sciences, particularly, on environmental research in Australia.