Robert L. Park

Robert L. Park
Born	January 16, 1931 (1931-01-16) (age 78) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Physics
Institutions	Sandia National Laboratories University of Maryland, College Park
Alma mater	University of Texas Brown University
Known for	Criticism of pseudoscience.

Robert Lee Park (born January 16, 1931 in Kansas City, Missouri), also known as Bob Park, is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park and a former Executive Director of the American Physical Society. Park is most noted for his critical commentaries on alternative medicine and other pseudoscience.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Academic career 3 Career as a skeptic 4 Personal 5 Appearances 6 Awards and honors 7 Books 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

Early life

Park was born in 1931 in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was a lawyer and a farmer in southern Texas^[1] and he originally intended to attend law school.^[2] He entered the Air Force in 1951 and served (among other places) at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico until 1956.^[3] When the Air Force sent him to radar school, he discovered a passion for physics.^[1]

Academic career

He achieved his bachelors and masters degrees in Physics from the University of Texas in 1958 and 1960.

He obtained his PhD in physics at Brown University in 1964.^[3] During his graduate work he was associated with physicist Harrison E. Farnsworth^[2] with whom he authored several papers.^[3]

He spent almost a decade working as a member of the technical staff, and later Director of the Surface Physics Division, at Sandia National Laboratories, a U.S. Government weapons research laboratory.^[3] He would draw on these experiences in later commentaries on government involvement in science and nuclear weapon development.

In 1974 he was recruited by the University of Maryland for their physics department. He has been associated with UMD ever since. He was Director of UMD's Center of Materials Research from 1975 to 1978 and Chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 1978 to 1982.^[3]

Over his long career as a physicist he has authored more than a hundred technical papers on the structure and properties of single-crystal surfaces and has supervised ten PhD Theses. He has chaired "more committees than I want to remember" and edited several peer-reviewed journals or proceedings.^[3]

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Vacuum Society.^[3]

Career as a skeptic

From 1983 until 2006, he was Director of Public Information at the Washington office of the American Physical Society. In this role (which he established), he engaged politicians and the press on matters of science and public policy. The Washington office now employs six people and Park continues in an advisory capacity.^[4] He has been seen in the media as an outspoken critic of human spaceflight,^[5] efforts to colonize space,^[6] and the prototype U.S. National Missile Defense (as well as its predecessor SDI).^[7] He criticized Dennis Lee's claims that he had invented a device from which he could extract "free energy", which would violate the conservation of energy.^[8]

Park writes a weekly column, What's New, which appears each Friday. It features discussions on topics such as science news, space exploration, energy, the government in science, pseudoscience, alternative medicine, the creation-evolution controversy,^[9] and nuclear weapons.^[10] In his column he has characterized Wikipedia as a target for misuse by the "purveyors of pseudoscience".^[11] His column is hosted on UMD's web site, but bears the disclaimer, "Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be."

He has also written op-eds and other articles on these topics for The New York Times,^[5], Newsday, USA Today, The Washington Post,^[3] Space.com,^[12] Quackwatch^[13] and Skeptical Inquirer magazine.^{[14][15][16][17]}

In 2000 he criticized alternative medicine, telepathy and homeopathy in his popular book Voodoo Science. Science fiction author Charles Platt reviewed the book for the Washington Post, somewhat negatively.^[18] This was followed by a number of letters to the editor criticizing Platt for alleged bias.^[19] Other reviews of the book have been positive.^[20]

In 2008 Park published his second book, Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science.

In 2009, Park gave a public lecture at Dartmouth College on Malthusian overpopulation and the environment. ^[21][22] He called for the distribution of the birth control pill, "arguably the most important technological development in history", to reduce fertility rates in developing nations.

Since 2004^[23] Park has been a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.^[24]

Personal

Park is married to Gerry and lives in Adelphi, Maryland. They have two sons, Robert Jr. and Daniel, and three grandchildren.^[1]

On September 3, 2000, Park was hospitalized in a freak accident when he was struck by a falling oak tree.^[25] He later wrote about the experience in his book, Superstition.

Appearances

Park spoke at The Amaz!ng Meeting 2 in 2004,^[26] and at the National Capital Area Skeptics in 1995, 2000, 2002 and 2008.^[27]

Park has appeared on NBC News^[28] and was one of the featured participants in the alternative medicine episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!.

Park appeared on Dateline NBC in April 2009 in a segment investigating Dennis Lee's fraudulent claims for a device that could supposedly dramatically increase the gasoline mileage of a car. ^[29]

Awards and honors

• 1958 Phi Beta Kappa (University of Texas)^[3]
• 1998 Joseph A. Burton Forum Award from the American Physical Society for his What's New column.^[30]
• 2008 NCAS Philip J. Klass Award from the National Capital Area Skeptics^[25]

Books

• Park, Robert L. (2000), Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 230, ISBN 0-19-514710-3 
• Park, Robert L. (2008), Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 240, ISBN 0-69-113355-7, http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8720.html 

See also

• Criticism of Wikipedia's Suitability as an Encyclopedia

References

External links

• What's New – Bob Park's weekly column and newsletter
• Robert L. Park – faculty homepage, Physics Department, University of Maryland, College Park

Persondata
NAME	Park, Robert L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Park, Bob
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Physicist & skeptic
DATE OF BIRTH	16 January 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH	St. Louis, Missouri
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH