Matt Ridley
British journalist and businessman
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| 2025 | Scheduled to publish 'Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin's Strangest Idea'. |
| December 2021 | Retires from the House of Lords in December. |
| November 2021 | Co-authored 'Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19' with Alina Chan, published in November. |
| 2020 | Published 'How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom'. |
| May 2020 | Matt Ridley published commentary questioning the origins of the new coronavirus, suggesting potential laboratory involvement in its emergence. |
| 2017 | Matt Ridley wrote a column arguing for free-market anticapitalism, distinguishing between markets, commerce, and traditional capitalism, and positioning markets as a force that challenges corporate and governmental monopolies. |
| August 2017 | Wrote the main article for the August edition of BBC Focus magazine, presenting his skeptical views on resource depletion. |
| 2016 | Matt Ridley advocated for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union during the Brexit referendum, appearing in the documentary 'Brexit: The Movie' to argue for a return to pre-1930s free trade policies. |
| 2016 | Ridley was accused of lobbying for the coal industry after sending an email to the UK government's energy minister about a carbon sequestration project, though the complaint was dismissed by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. |
| 2015 | Ridley's team won the celebrity Christmas special of University Challenge, representing Magdalen College, Oxford. |
| 2015 | Published 'The Evolution of Everything: How Ideas Emerge'. |
| 2015 | Ridley received the Bledisloe Gold Medal from the Royal Agricultural Society of England for extensive environmental improvement work on his Blagdon estate. |
| 2014 | Won the free enterprise award from the Institute of Economic Affairs. |
| 2014 | Matt Ridley wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled 'Whatever Happened to Global Warming?', which was subsequently challenged by Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University's Earth Institute regarding climate science interpretations. |
| July 2014 | Owen Paterson, his brother-in-law, left his government posts as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. |
| 2013 | Started writing a weekly column for The Times, focusing on science, environment, and economics. |
| February 2013 | Becomes a Conservative hereditary peer with an elected seat in the House of Lords. |
| February 2012 | Inherits the title of 5th Viscount Ridley in February. |
| 2011 | Delivered the Angus Millar Lecture on 'scientific heresy' at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). |
| 2011 | Awarded the $50,000 Hayek Prize by the Manhattan Institute for his book The Rational Optimist. Delivered an acceptance speech highlighting themes of human collaboration and trade. |
| 2011 | Delivered the Hayek Lecture, articulating his political philosophy about trade, social cooperation, and skepticism of top-down authoritarian rule. |
| 2010 | Published 'The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves', which was shortlisted for the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize. Gave a TED conference talk 'When Ideas Have Sex' that received over 2 million views. |
| 2010 | Delivered a TED conference talk 'When Ideas Have Sex', which received over 2 million views. |
| 2010 | Ended his tenure as a governor of the Ditchley Foundation. |
| 2010 | Began writing the weekly 'Mind and Matter' column for The Wall Street Journal, exploring the science of human nature, which continued until 2013. |
| November 2010 | Engaged in a lengthy exchange with Bill Gates in The Wall Street Journal about topics in his book The Rational Optimist, discussing optimism and problem-solving approaches. |
| June 19 2010 | Monbiot published another article on the Guardian website further questioning Ridley's claims and response. |
| June 1 2010 | George Monbiot published a follow-up article critiquing Ridley in the context of his book The Rational Optimist. |
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