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]. 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. Jacobs, Julia (October 2, 2020). "Museum Fires Curator Who It Says Sexually Harassed Student Researcher". New york Times.
  2. Siddall, Mark; Kluge, Arnold (December 1997). "Probabilism and phylogenetic inference". Cladistics. 13 (4): 313–336. doi:10.1006/clad.1997.0046. hdl:2027.42/71951.
  3. "INTRODUCTION OF PRESIDENT MARK E. SIDDALL". ProQuest.
  4. "U of T Magazine | Winter 2014". Issuu. 10 December 2013.
  5. "Mark Siddall". World Science Festival. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  6. Siddall, Mark E. (2016). "Presidential Address: Reinvention and Resolve". The Journal of Parasitology. 102 (6): 566–571. doi:10.1645/16-113. JSTOR 44810235. PMID 27626125. S2CID 11802614.
  7. 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:IOMESA]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 3285473. PMID 12537094. S2CID 44766356.
  8. "All Events | U-M LSA University of Michigan Herbarium". lsa.umich.edu.
  9. "Twitter Nerd-Fight Reveals a Long, Bizarre Scientific Feud". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  10. Zimmer, Carl (2006-02-07). "His Subject: Highly Evolved and Exquisitely Thirsty". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  11. Yong, Ed (2016-08-22). "A Tiny Jellyfish Relative Just Shut Down Yellowstone River". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  12. Palmer, Brian (2015-03-10). "We're on the Verge of the Greatest Public Health Triumph of the 21st Century". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  13. Borel, Brooke (2016-02-02). "Bed bug genome shows how gnarly these creatures really are". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  14. Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Old Bugs". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  15. Mark Siddall (2014). Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences. Sterling Publishing Company, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-4549-0764-0.
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