Do we like Brian Cox?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean record on harm and a long run of public-spirited science work, marked down only because the record on LGBTQ+ issues is silent.
Cox is the bloke who made quantum physics feel like a night at the pub. His whole pitch is that expertise should be open to everyone: in a 2019 interview he said “Scientists aren't some kind of weird, other, super-intelligent beings.” That's the thread through everything he does.
The latest news is a good one. He was awarded the 2026 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, presented by Starmus co-founders Sir Brian May and Garik Israelian at the Royal Astronomical Society. Cox called it “a great honour”, and said it meant extra because he was with Hawking when the medal was first announced a decade ago.
Now the harm check, which is the one that matters here. On climate he's been blunt: in a 2016 interview he said the longer you leave it, the more expensive and damaging it gets. He also criticised Trump for gambling with the environment and the future, and worried that cutting federal spending would slow climate research.
On politics more broadly, he's happy to have a go. In 2019 he said that when a country looks to be heading in a wrong or dangerous direction, he felt he could offer an opinion, and he joked that Donald Trump should be sat in a classroom for a week. That's a scientist taking a side on facts, not anything aimed at a group of people.
The part where he's put his neck out lately is funding. In March 2026 he said cuts to UK particle, nuclear and astrophysics research would be “devastating”, called them poorly thought through, and said the select committee had been ignored. He predicted they'd eventually be reversed, but that fixing the damage would cost far more than avoiding it.
Here's the gap, and we'd rather tell you than bluff: we found no statements from him on trans or LGBTQ+ rights, good or bad, and no dodgy co-stars or projects. We also found no court cases or credible allegations against him. Absence of evidence isn't a gold star, but it's a clean sheet, with plenty of public good on top.