Dave Collum: Financial Crisis, Diddy, Energy Weapons, QAnon, and the Deep State’s Digital Evolution

There aren’t many Ivy League professors as bold as Dave Collum. It’s amazing he still has a job.

Dave Collum is a professor of organic chemistry at Cornell University, where he earned his BS in biology and later returned after completing his PhD in chemistry at Columbia. A former department chair and 20-year associate editor of The Journal of Organic Chemistry, Dave has also consulted for major pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Pfizer, and Amgen. Outside of academia, he’s known for his sharp, contrarian takes on politics, economics, and culture—often shared via his unfiltered X account (@DavidBCollum), frequent podcast appearances, and his widely read annual “Year in Review” at Peak Prosperity. He’s also coached collegiate gymnastics and taekwondo and has been featured in outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and The Federalist but usually on topics far removed from chemistry.