Professor Edzard Ernst

Physician

Edzard Ernst is a prize-winning physician and researcher specialising in the study of complementary and alternative medicine, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, and the founder of three medical journals.

Born in 1948, Ernst went to school in Germany and the US and studied psychology and medicine at the LMU in Munich. In 1977, he qualified as a physician in Germany where he later also completed his MD and PhD theses. He came to the University of Exeter in 1993 to establish the world’s first Chair in Complementary Medicine. In 1999, he took British nationality and since 2012, is an Emeritus Professor at the university.
 
Professor Ernst founded and was Editor-in-Chief of three medical journals: Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies, European Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Perfusion. He’s also been a columnist for many publications including BMJ, the Guardian, the Independent, and the Spectator, and is co-author of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. His work has been awarded 17 scientific awards and in 2022, he was elected to the Academia Europaea Academy of Europe.