Authors

Mark Honeychurch is a Wellington based skeptic who loves to experience the weird and the wonderful, even though it's all total nonsense.

Craig Shearer is the immediate past Chair of the NZ Skeptics, and has organised the Auckland Skeptics in the Pub group since its inception. He is a keen photographer and musician, and owns his own lighting rig for musical events.

Bronwyn Rideout is a registered midwife and the current chair of the NZ Skeptics.

David Riddell is a Waikato freelance ecologist and journalist.

John Welch is spending the next year in the Czech Republic, so this will be the last Hokum Locum. NZ Skeptic thanks John for his excellent contributions over many years and wishes him well.

Katrina Borthwick is a huge science nerd and her main interests are in psychology, astronomy and science fiction. She has been a skeptic ever since she read ‘Demon Haunted World’ by Carl Sagan in the 90s and is super interested in what makes people think the way they do. She lives in Wellington with her husband Alan, her two young daughters and two annoying cats.

Vicki Hyde is a science writer and editor, and was the chair-entity of the NZ Skeptics for many years.

Professor Bernard Howard is an emeritus professor from Lincoln University in Canterbury, New Zealand.

Jess Macfarlane was the last Editor of the NZ Skeptic journal.

Nick Kim is a Waikato chemist and cartoonist

Alison Campbell is a lecturer in the Biological Sciences Department at Waikato University. She writes Bioblog as a way of encouraging critical thinking, looking at scientific papers that are relevant to the Level 3 curriculum and Scholarship, and fielding questions from readers.

Jim Ring goes fishing when the weather is good. Before retiring, he taught chemistry.

Denis Dutton is a lecturer in the Fine Arts Department at Canterbury University, and is the NZ Skeptics media spokesperson.

Daniel Ryan lives in Taranaki and works as a software developer. He is a co-founder and president of Making Sense of Fluoride, a committee member for the NZ Skeptics and the current chair of the Society for Science Based Healthcare.

Alistair Blennerhassett has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He has spent most of his working life in the field of Information Technology, and is now retired.

Annette has almost 30 years’ experience in journalism, and has written for the Waikato TImes, NZ Herald, NEXT magazine and the Hamilton Press.

Patrick Medlicott was an Orthopaedic Surgeon for many years, before opening a vineyard.

Hugh Young is a long-term human rights campaigner and sceptic. Yes, he prefers to spell it that way.

Keith Lockett was a committee member of the NZ Skeptics, and has been an Editor of its journal, the NZ Skeptic.

Brad is a piano tuner, and a multi-instrumentalist - playing guitars, mandolin, fiddle, keys, and many more instruments.

Donald Rooum has drawn the Sprite strip for The Skeptic magazine since 1987. He has illustrated several books, including Don't you believe it! by John Radford. An exhibition of Rooum's work was held at Conway Hall in 2008.

Dr Raymond Richards is a Senior Lecturer in History and American Studies at the University of Waikato. He can be reached at ray@waikato.ac.nz

Dr Siouxsie Wiles is a research scientist with a background in medical and environmental microbiology. She has made a career out of combining her twin passions of bioluminescence and microorganisms. After many years working in the UK, she recently relocated to the University of Auckland. Her research is currently focused on Staphylococcus aureus (the hospital superbug MRSA), Streptococcus pyogenes (the flesh-eating bug) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She is not in the pay of Big Pharma.

Carl Wyant is a cheerful Auckland Skeptic and freelance writer.

Owen McShane was chairman of the policy panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition and director of the Centre for Resource Management Studies.

Neil McKenzie is a Tauranga GP.

Matthew Willey works in schools as an adviser for children with disabilities. He lives in Palmerston North with his family, who tolerate his enthusiasm for skepticism with a kindly forbearance. He is English, but losing the accent.

Bill Morris is a doctor with the Student Health Service at Massey University.

Dr Bob Brockie is a noted biologist and cartoonist.

Hamish Dickson is a healthcare worker living in Dunedin, and a member of the NZ Skeptics committee.

Lance is a retired industrial chemist, with a bachelor's degree, ironically in biology. His specialty was using chemicals to control troublesome microorganisms in various industrial processes. He is a skeptic of long standing, a science geek who reads all kinds of scientific fields, a keen scuba diver, married to Delwyn and living on the beautiful Tutukaka coast. He is the author of one published book (Ecomyth) about the way environmental ideas have been screwed over.

Gold (his only name) founded the New Zealand Skeptics in the Pub, and was chair of the NZ Skeptics from 2010 to 2014.

Jay Mann is a plant biochemist with a life-long interest in edible plants.

Jonathon Harper has been a musician, journalist, school teacher, social worker, and middle distance running coaching.

A tireless skeptical activist, Mark Hanna is co-founder of the Society for Science Based Healthcare, blogger at SciBlogs and winner of the NZ Skeptics Society’s inaugural Skeptic of the Year award.

Martin Wallace is a retired physician with special training in kidney diesease and its management, and a degree in pharmacology in addition to the MB., ChB. Since retirement he has had time to resume his education in other fields.

Steven Galbraith is an associate professor in mathematics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include cryptography and information security, and he enjoys breaking mathematical cryptosystems (cryptanalysis is basically skepticism about cryptosystems).

Tony Vignaux is Emeritus Professor of Operations Research at Victoria University of Wellington (Retired), and a volunteer at Wellington Hospital.

Warwick Don, before retirement, was senior lecturer in zoology, University of Otago and is an ardent opponent of scientific creationism.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek is a lecturer in science education at the Goroka Teachers' College in Papua New Guinea.

Bill Keir is a freelance journalist and member of the Auckland Astronomical Society.

Steven Novella, MD, is an academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is also the president and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society, the host and producer of the popular weekly science podcast The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, the author of the NeuroLogica Blog and founder of Science-Based Medicine.

As well as being a professional geologist and amateur astronomer, Alastair Brickell spent many years as the NZ Skeptics' video librarian.

Alexander Maxwell researches national awakening the Habsburg and its successor states, and particularly Slovakia and Hungary during the long nineteenth century.

Barry Lennox worked part-time in the “wireless” and the then-new TV industries before joining the RNZAF as an Air Radio mechanic, and worked his way up the ranks to become the Avionics advisor to Air Staff. He then left the RNZAF and worked for a while in the top secret world of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). Barry spent many years on the NZ Skeptics committee.

Felicity Goodyear-Smith (MB, ChB, DipObst, MRNZCGP) is a GP who has specialised in the field of sexual abuse. She is the founder of the organisation COSA, Casualties of Sexual Allegations.

Gordon Hewitt is a counsellor and psychotherapist in private practice. He has previously taught genetics and evolutionary biology at university.

John Maindonald is a mathematician and computer scientist whose interests are statistical data analysis, the R statistical system, design and analysis of experiments, analysis of gene expression data and statistical computation.