Robert Lee Park (born January 16, 1931), also known as Bob Park, is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park and a former Director of Public Information at the Washington office of the American Physical Society. Park is most noted for his critical commentaries on alternative medicine and other pseudoscience, as well as his criticism of how legitimate science is distorted or ignored by the media, some scientists, and public policy advocates as expressed in his book Voodoo Science. He is also noted for his preference for robotic over manned space exploration.
Park was born in 1931 in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was a lawyer and a farmer in southern Texas, and Park had originally intended to attend law school himself. He entered the Air Force in 1951 and served (among other places) at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico until 1956. When the Air Force sent him to radar school, he discovered a passion for physics.
Park obtained his bachelors and masters degrees in Physics from the University of Texas in 1958 and 1960, and his PhD in physics from Brown University in 1964. During his graduate work he was associated with physicist Harrison E. Farnsworth with whom he co-authored several papers.
Park 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. He would draw on these experiences in later commentaries on government involvement in science and nuclear weapon development.
In 1974, Park 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.
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.
He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Vacuum Society.
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. He has been seen in the media as an outspoken critic of human spaceflight, efforts to colonize space, and the prototype U.S. National Missile Defense (as well as its predecessor SDI).
Park writes a weekly column, What's New, which appears each Friday on the University of Maryland's website. It features discussions on topics such as science news, space exploration, energy, the government in science, pseudoscience, alternative medicine, the creation-evolution controversy, and nuclear weapons. Park has also expressed his opinion that Wikipedia is a target for misuse by the "purveyors of pseudoscience", though he has also stated that he finds the site to be both indispensable and "cool" In 2009 Park gave a public lecture at Dartmouth College on Malthusian overpopulation and the environment. 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. Park has criticized Texas A&M's Trotter Prize for being awarded to "one of the nation's top pseudoscientists" (proponent of the creationist pseudoscientific concept of intelligent design William A. Dembski) for inappropriately forcing religion and science together.
He has also written op-eds and other articles on these topics for The New York Times, Newsday, USA Today, The Washington Post, Space.com, Quackwatch and Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Park has been a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry since 2004.
UFOlogist Stanton T. Friedman criticized Park's analysis of the Roswell UFO Incident for including inconsistencies in dates and accounts of the Roswell incident and for engaging in amateur psychology in making his arguments.
Books
In 2000 Park published the popular book Voodoo Science, which addressed and criticized topics such as alternative medicine, telepathy and homeopathy. Science fiction author Charles Platt reviewed the book for The Washington Post, criticizing it for citing news stories as the inspiration for his criticisms and using ad hominem attacks against individuals criticized rather than performing a more thorough investigation of the topics, and speaking with the actual researchers. This was followed by a number of letters to the editor criticizing Platt for bias. Reviewing the book for The New York Times, reporter Ed Regis compared it positively to the 1957 book by Martin Gardner, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, calling Voodoo Science a "worthy successor" and praising it for explaining why various purportedly scientific claims were in fact impossible.
In 2008 Park published his second book, Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science. Publishers Weekly called the book "disjointed", unfavorably comparing it to Daniel Dennett's Religion as a Natural Phenomenon for merely summarizing the existing arguments about science and religion. Park commented that the reviewer for Publishers Weekly was offended at his assertion that "science is the only way of knowing." Booklist reviewed the book positively for its lucid style, engaging with respected scientists who also hold strong religious faith and its internal logic against claims of supernatural revelation and New Age irrationality. The same review noted that Park was less compelling in addressing his own atheism, neurochemistry and its ability to address problems such as free will.
Park is married to Gerry and lives in Adelphi, Maryland. They have two sons, Robert Jr. and Daniel, and three grandchildren.
On September 3, 2000, Park was hospitalized after being struck by a falling oak tree. He later wrote about the experience in his book, Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science.
Park spoke at The Amaz!ng Meeting 2 in 2004, and at the National Capital Area Skeptics in 1995, 2000, 2002 and 2008.
Park has appeared on NBC News (Chapter 1 is online at this link) 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.
Park appeared on The Colbert Report on July 20, 2009.
Park was the guest on the Skeptics Guide podcast on Episode 11 on August 31, 2005
