Duncan Madsen Pirie born 24 August 1940 in Hull, he is a British researcher and author. He is a co-founder and current President of the Adam Smith Institute, a UK neoliberal think tank which has been in operation since 1978. he attended the Humberstone Foundation School in Old Clee, Lincolnshire. He graduated with an MA (undergraduate) in History from the University of Edinburgh (1970). He attended the University of St Andrews, joining the Conservative Association, and graduating with a PhD in Philosophy in 1974. He earned an MPhil in Land Economy from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1997). Pirie was one of three Britons living in the United States who founded the Adam Smith Institute, a UK-based think tank that champions the ideas of free market policy, and the elimination of government economic controls. In January 2010 Foreign Policy and the University of Pennsylvania named the Adam Smith Institute among the top 10 think tanks in the world outside of the US. Pirie served as the organization's president. The Adam Smith Institute was ranked 56th in the 2019 University of Pennsylvania index report.