Biography:Mark Siddall
Mark E. Siddall is a Canadian biologist and former curator[1] at the American Museum of Natural History. Siddall has studied the evolution and systematics of blood parasites and leeches, and systematic theory[2].[citation needed] Siddall was hired as an assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History in July, 1999[3] and worked there as a curator until September, 2020, when he was terminated for allegedly having violated the museum's policy prohibiting sexual relationships between staff and mentees. Siddall denied the claim.[1]
Education
Siddall completed a Masters[4] and PhD[5] under the supervision of Sherwin S. Desser at the University of Toronto in 1991 and 1994, respectively.[6]
Career
After completing his PhD, Siddall completed a postdoc at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.[7] Subsequently, he was a fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows from 1996-1999.[8] He also acted as treasurer of the Willi Hennig Society, publisher of the journal Cladistics.[9]
Siddall has worked and published on parasitic and other animals, including leeches,[10] jellyfish,[11] guinea worms,[12] and bed bugs.[13][14]
He is author of the science book Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences.[15]
In 2016, Siddall, Jonathan Eisen, and others were involved in the Twitter controversy #ParsimonyGate.[9]
The American Museum of Natural History fired Siddall in September 2020 for alleged sexual harassment, citing museum policy that prohibits sexual relationships between staff and mentees under their academic supervision.[1] An outside law firm representing the museum's interests found that Siddall had "engaged in verbal, written, and physical conduct of a sexual nature that had the effect of unreasonably interfering with your academic performance."[1] Siddall denied that any sexual encounter ever took place, and claimed he was fired because "he had found a serious error" in a paper.[1]
Research
Siddall studies phylogenetics and evolution.[10] Siddall has been described as "a staunch supporter of parsimony and a harsh critic of maximum likelihood approaches”, although "having mellowed a bit on that".[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Jacobs, Julia (October 2, 2020). "Museum Fires Curator Who It Says Sexually Harassed Student Researcher". New york Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/arts/mark-siddall-sexual-harassment.html.
- ↑ Siddall, Mark; Kluge, Arnold (December 1997). "Probabilism and phylogenetic inference.". Cladistics 13 (4): 313–336. doi:10.1006/clad.1997.0046.
- ↑ "INTRODUCTION OF PRESIDENT MARK E. SIDDALL". https://www.proquest.com/openview/826ba0e832e279739fb0691b74b947f6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41450.
- ↑ "U of T Magazine | Winter 2014". 10 December 2013. https://issuu.com/uoftmagazine/docs/winter14/62.
- ↑ "Mark Siddall". World Science Festival. https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/participants/mark_siddall/.
- ↑ Siddall, Mark E. (2016). "Presidential Address: Reinvention and Resolve". The Journal of Parasitology 102 (6): 566–571. doi:10.1645/16-113. PMID 27626125.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Burreson, Eugene M.; Siddall, Mark E.; Connors, Vincent A. (2002). "Society Business". The Journal of Parasitology 88 (6): 1053–1070. doi:10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[1053:IOMESA2.0.CO;2]. PMID 12537094.
- ↑ "All Events | U-M LSA University of Michigan Herbarium". https://lsa.umich.edu/herbarium/news-events/all-events.detail.html/37412-6534097.html.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Twitter Nerd-Fight Reveals a Long, Bizarre Scientific Feud". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/2016/02/twitter-nerd-fight-reveals-a-long-bizarre-scientific-feud/. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Zimmer, Carl (2006-02-07). "His Subject: Highly Evolved and Exquisitely Thirsty". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/science/his-subject-highly-evolved-and-exquisitely-thirsty.html.
- ↑ Yong, Ed (2016-08-22). "A Tiny Jellyfish Relative Just Shut Down Yellowstone River". https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/08/the-parasite-that-just-shut-down-a-montana-river-has-an-unbelievable-origin/496817/.
- ↑ Palmer, Brian (2015-03-10). "We're on the Verge of the Greatest Public Health Triumph of the 21st Century". https://slate.com/technology/2015/03/guinea-worm-eradication-nylon-filters-and-caring-about-others-bring-a-public-health-victory.html.
- ↑ Borel, Brooke (2016-02-02). "Bed bug genome shows how gnarly these creatures really are". https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/2/10891676/bed-bug-genome-sequencing-findings-nature-communications.
- ↑ Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Old Bugs". The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/old-bugs. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
- ↑ Mark Siddall (2014). Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences. Sterling Publishing Company, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-4549-0764-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=4PVBmQEACAAJ.
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