Nick Matzke

Nicholas J. Matzke is the former Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) and served an instrumental role in NCSE's preparation for the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial. One of his chief contributions was discovering drafts of Of Pandas and People which demonstrated that the term "intelligent design" was later substituted for "creationism". This became a key component of Barbara Forrest's testimony. After the trial he co-authored a commentary in Nature Immunology, was interviewed on Talk of the Nation, and was profiled in Seed magazine as one of nine "revolutionary minds".

Matzke has written many in-depth pieces and has made frequent posts online, including regularly blogging at The Panda's Thumb. He wrote a lengthy paper about the evolution of flagella and has challenged intelligent design claims that flagella are irreducibly complex. He co-authored a critique of Stephen C. Meyer's paper that became important in the Sternberg peer review controversy. He also critiqued Jonathan Wells' book Icons of Evolution and contributed to NCSE's book Not in Our Classrooms. Less seriously, he co-authored a research parody based on NCSE's Project Steve. He first made a name for himself posting on talk.origins as "Nic Tamzek".