David Colquhoun
British pharmacologist
David Colquhoun (born 19 July 1936) is a British pharmacologist at University College London (UCL). He has contributed to the general theory of receptor and synaptic mechanisms, and in particular the theory and practice of single ion channel function. He held the A.J. Clark chair of Pharmacology at UCL from 1985 to 2004, and was the Hon. Director of the Wellcome Laboratory for Molecular Pharmacology. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1985 and an honorary fellow of UCL in 2004. Colquhoun runs the website DC's Improbable Science, which is critical of pseudoscience, particularly alternative medicine, and managerialism.
Early life and education
Colquhoun was born on 19 July 1936 in Birkenhead, UK. He was educated at Birkenhead School and Liverpool Technical College. After working unhappily as an apprentice pharmacist, he was motivated to go into research. He obtained a BSc degree from the University of Leeds with a specialisation in pharmacology, and went on to complete a PhD degree at the University of Edinburgh where he studied the binding of immunoglobulins to lung tissue. His supervisors were Walter Perry and W.E. Brocklehurst.
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