The Federal Circuit Court has awarded Peter Ridd $1.2 million in damages after earlier finding James Cook University acted unlawfully in sacking the physics professor.

Dr Ridd was dismissed by the university last year after he repeatedly questioned colleagues' research on the impact of global warming on the Great Barrier Reef, criticising the work as untrustworthy and "misleading".

Peter Ridd was sacked last year after he repeatedly questioned colleagues' research on the impact of global warming on the Great Barrier Reef, criticising it as untrustworthy and "misleading".

The Federal Circuit Court, which in April found the dismissal was unlawful, on Friday said Dr Ridd would now be seen as "damaged goods" and the university had "poisoned the well".

Outlining his final declarations and penalties, Judge Salvatore Vasta suggested the university's conduct bordered on "paranoia and hysteria fuelled by systemic vindictiveness" and Dr Ridd must have felt he was being persecuted. He found the academic's intellectual freedom had been undermined by the "myopic and unjustified actions of his lifelong employer".