# Matt Ridley

> Matt Ridley, 5th Viscount Ridley, is a British science writer, journalist, and hereditary peer whose books - from Genome to The Rational Optimist to How Innovation Works - have sold nearly two million copies in 31 languages. A zoologist by training (Oxford DPhil on pheasant mating systems), he argues that human progress is driven by the bottom-up exchange of ideas rather than top-down planning. Co-founder of the Rational Optimist Society newsletter, he writes a weekly column for The Times and is known for being simultaneously Britain's most prominent optimist about civilization and the chairman who presided over Northern Rock's catastrophic 2007 bank run.

- **Role:** Author and Columnist at The Times
- **Organizations:** The Times, The Spectator, Rational Optimist Society, Global Warming Policy Foundation (advisor), House of Lords (2013-2021), HarperCollins (publisher), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Foreign Honorary Member)
- **From:** Northumberland, England
- **Nationality:** British
- **Education:** Secondary education, Eton College, BA (1st class honours) in Zoology, Magdalen College, Oxford, DPhil in Zoology (thesis: mating system of the common pheasant), University of Oxford
- **Known for:** Nearly 2 million books sold, translated into 31 languages, TED talk 'When Ideas Have Sex' (TEDGlobal 2010) - over 2 million views, Hayek Prize, Manhattan Institute, 2011 ($50,000)

## Career timeline

- **1983** — Completed DPhil at Oxford on pheasant mating systems
- **1984** — Joined The Economist as science editor
- **1987** — Became Washington D.C. correspondent for The Economist
- **1989** — Published first book Warts and All about Bush presidential campaign
- **1990** — Became American editor of The Economist
- **1993** — Published The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
- **1994** — Joined Northern Rock board of directors
- **1996** — Founded International Centre for Life, Newcastle (chairman until 2003)
- **1996** — Published The Origins of Virtue
- **1999** — Published Genome, shortlisted for Samuel Johnson Prize
- **2003** — Published Nature via Nurture
- **2004** — Became chairman of Northern Rock plc
- **2006** — Published Francis Crick biography
- **2007** — Northern Rock suffered first British bank run in 130 years; Ridley resigned as chairman
- **2010** — Published The Rational Optimist; delivered TED talk 'When Ideas Have Sex' (2M+ views)
- **2011** — Won Manhattan Institute Hayek Prize for The Rational Optimist
- **2012** — Succeeded father as 5th Viscount Ridley
- **2013** — Elected as hereditary peer to House of Lords (Conservative)
- **2013** — Began weekly column at The Times
- **2015** — Published The Evolution of Everything
- **2020** — Published How Innovation Works
- **2021** — Published Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19 (co-authored with Alina Chan)
- **2021** — Left House of Lords
- **2025** — Published Birds, Sex and Beauty (March 2025)

## Achievements

- Nearly 2 million books sold, translated into 31 languages
- TED talk 'When Ideas Have Sex' (TEDGlobal 2010) - over 2 million views
- Hayek Prize, Manhattan Institute, 2011 ($50,000)
- Julian L. Simon Memorial Award, Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2012
- Bledisloe Gold Medal, Royal Agricultural Society of England, 2015
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL, 1999)
- Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci, 2004)
- Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013)
- Champion of COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis years before mainstream acceptance
- Founded International Centre for Life, Newcastle (1996)
- Wrote 11 books spanning evolutionary biology, economics, innovation, and virology

## Latest updates

- **2025-03** — Published Birds, Sex and Beauty (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins) - exploring Darwin's sexual selection theory through bird behavior
- **2025-04** — Wrote about Trump bungling the explosive truth about COVID-19's lab origins
- **2026-02** — Wrote about BBC coverage of thriving polar bear populations vs. climate narrative
- **2026-04** — Delivered ICSF/Clintel Lecture 'The Great Climate Climbdown' arguing climate alarm is fading due to economic realities

## Links

- Website: https://www.mattridley.co.uk/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwridley/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mattwridley
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AuthorMattRidley

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/matt-ridley
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-29