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{{Short description|Canadian biologist (born 1966)}}
{{Short description|Canadian biologist}}
{{Orphan|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Mark Siddall
| image = SiddallZambia.jpg
| image_size = 200
| caption = Siddall on an expedition in Zambia.
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1966|11|22}}
| birth_place = [[Toronto]], Canada
| known_for =
| children = 2
| field = {{flatlist|
* [[Genomics]]
* [[biodiversity]]
* [[science communication]]}}
}}
'''Mark E. Siddall''' is a Canadian<ref name="auto1">{{cite web|url=https://search.proquest.com/openview/826ba0e832e279739fb0691b74b947f6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41450|title=INTRODUCTION OF PRESIDENT MARK E. SIDDALL - ProQuest|website=search.proquest.com}}</ref> invertebrate zoologist and infectious disease expert.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/disease-dangers-pandemic-influenza-ebola-2017-5|title=Disease experts reveal their biggest worries about the next pandemic|date=2021-03-12}}</ref>


'''Mark E. Siddall''' is a Canadian biologist and former curator<ref name="auto">{{cite news|last=Jacobs |first=Julia|date=October 2, 2020|title=Museum Fires Curator Who It Says Sexually Harassed Student Researcher |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/arts/mark-siddall-sexual-harassment.html|work=New york Times}}</ref> at the [[American Museum of Natural History]]. Siddall has studied the [[evolutionary biology|evolution]] and [[systematics]] of blood parasites and [[leech]]es, and systematic theory<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Siddall |first1=Mark |last2=Kluge |first2=Arnold |title=Probabilism and phylogenetic inference. |journal=Cladistics |date=December 1997 |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=313–336 |doi=10.1006/clad.1997.0046|hdl=2027.42/71951 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} Siddall was hired as an assistant curator at the [[American Museum of Natural History]] in July, 1999<ref name="auto1">{{cite web |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/826ba0e832e279739fb0691b74b947f6/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41450 |title=INTRODUCTION OF PRESIDENT MARK E. SIDDALL |website=ProQuest}}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto"/>
Siddall's research has focused on the diversity and evolutionary biology of a wide range of parasites, from single-celled microbes to leeches. He has led expeditions throughout the world, most recently including South Sudan, Cambodia, the Lower Amazon of Brazil, and Madagascar. His work ranges from sequencing the whole genome of bed bugs uncovering hemotoxic venom compounds in blood feeding animals, to leveraging iDNA as a measure of endangered animal diversity in protected tropical forests.<ref name = "ECintro">{{cite web|url=https://www.explorers.org/events/detail/public_lecture_series_with_mark_siddall|title=Public Lecture Series with Mark Siddall - The Bloodsucker Proxy: Terrestrial Leeches and Revolutionary New Techniques For Genetic Forest Sampling|author=The Explorers Club|date=2018-04-30}}</ref> In addition to over 160 peer reviewed publications,<ref name = "SiddallScholar">{{cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=e3xDoBMAAAAJ&hl=en|title= Google Scholar Profile for Mark Siddall|date=|accessdate=2021-03-12}}</ref> he is author of the whimsical<ref name = "ECintro"/> book “Poison: Sinister species with deadly consequences”.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Poison/4PVBmQEACAAJ?hl=en |title=Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences - Mark Siddall - Google Books |publisher=Google.com |date= |accessdate=2021-03-12}}</ref>
Siddall is a committed science communicator making frequent public program appearances, at venues around New York City and more widely; even garnering recognition from the Entertainment Exchange of the National Academy of Sciences.<ref name = "ECintro"/> He has curated of the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life and other exhibitions including The Power of Poison, Life at the Limits: Stories of Amazing Species, Picturing Science, Undersea Oasis and Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease<ref name = "ECintro"/> in collaboration with President [[Jimmy Carter]]. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1994, is a recipient of the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal from the American Society of Parasitologists and is a Fellow of The Explorers Club.<ref name = "ECintro"/>


==Education==
==Education==


Siddall completed a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Immunology, a Masters <ref>{{cite web|url=https://issuu.com/uoftmagazine/docs/winter14/62|title=U of T Magazine &#124; Winter 2014|website=Issuu}}</ref> and PhD in Parasitology<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/participants/mark_siddall/ |title=Mark Siddall |publisher=World Science Festival |date= |accessdate=2021-03-12}}</ref> under the supervision of Sherwin S. Desser at the [[University of Toronto]] in 1988, 1991 and 1994, respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44810235|author=Siddall, Mark E.|title=Presidential Address: Reinvention and Resolve|year=2016|journal=The Journal of Parasitology|volume=102|issue=6|pages=566–571|doi=10.1645/16-113|jstor=44810235|pmid=27626125|s2cid=11802614}}</ref>
Siddall completed a Masters<ref>{{cite web|url=https://issuu.com/uoftmagazine/docs/winter14/62|title=U of T Magazine &#124; Winter 2014|website=Issuu|date=10 December 2013 }}</ref> and PhD<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/participants/mark_siddall/ |title=Mark Siddall |publisher=World Science Festival |date= |access-date=2021-03-12}}</ref> under the supervision of Sherwin S. Desser at the [[University of Toronto]] in 1991 and 1994, respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Siddall, Mark E.|title=Presidential Address: Reinvention and Resolve|year=2016|journal=The Journal of Parasitology |volume=102|issue=6|pages=566–571 |doi=10.1645/16-113|jstor=44810235|pmid=27626125|s2cid=11802614}}</ref>


==Career==
==Career==


After completing his PhD, Siddall completed a postdoc at the [[Virginia Institute of Marine Science]].<ref name="auto2"/> Subsequently, he was a fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows from 1996-1999.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lsa.umich.edu/herbarium/news-events/all-events.detail.html/37412-6534097.html|title=All Events &#124; U-M LSA University of Michigan Herbarium|website=lsa.umich.edu}}</ref> He also acted as treasurer of the [[Willi Hennig Society]], publisher of the journal ''[[Cladistics (journal)|Cladistics]]''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|title=Twitter Nerd-Fight Reveals a Long, Bizarre Scientific Feud |magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/02/twitter-nerd-fight-reveals-a-long-bizarre-scientific-feud/|access-date=2021-06-26|issn=1059-1028}}</ref>
After completing his PhD in 1994, Siddall started a postdoc at the [[Virginia Institute of Marine Science]] under the supervision of Eugene Burreson. Though Burreson is a noted marine leech systematist, their collaborations concerned protozoon parasites of oysters including "dermo" (''Perkinsus marinus'') and "MSX" (''Haplosporidium nelsoni'' and other economically important species in the parasitic phylum Haplosporidia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C33&q=siddall+burreson+haplosporidia+perkinsus&btnG=|title=Google Scholar results for Siddall Burreson Haplosporidia Perkinsus|via=Scholar.Google.com|accessdate=2021-04-09}}</ref> That research demonstrated that MSX began wiping out the Atlantic oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere as a result of the introduction of oysters from Asia.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/aquatic-living-resources/article/abs/review-of-recent-information-on-the-haplosporidia-with-special-reference-to-haplosporidium-nelsoni-msx-disease/6E905320DA708A506DEDCF3B8CF61FE8|title = A review of recent information on the Haplosporidia, with special reference to Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX disease)|author= Burreson, E.M.|date=2004}}</ref> His phylogenetic showing that Perkinsus marinus is just another dinoflagellate<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reece|first=K. S.|last2=Siddall|first2=M. E.|last3=Burreson|first3=E. M.|last4=Graves|first4=J. E.|date=1997-06-XX|title=Phylogenetic analysis of Perkinsus based on actin gene sequences|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9194820/|journal=The Journal of Parasitology|volume=83|issue=3|pages=417–423|issn=0022-3395|pmid=9194820}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Siddall|first=M. E.|last2=Reece|first2=K. S.|last3=Graves|first3=J. E.|last4=Burreson|first4=E. M.|date=1997-08-XX|title='Total evidence' refutes the inclusion of Perkinsus species in the phylum Apicomplexa|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10190172/|journal=Parasitology|volume=115 ( Pt 2)|pages=165–176|doi=10.1017/s0031182097001157|issn=0031-1820|pmid=10190172}}</ref> overturned environmental monitoring methods<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bushek|first=David|last2=Dungan|first2=Christopher F.|last3=Lewitus|first3=Alan J.|date=2002-01-XX|title=Serological affinities of the oyster pathogen Perkinsus marinus (Apicomplexa) with some dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae)|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11908893/|journal=The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology|volume=49|issue=1|pages=11–16|doi=10.1111/j.1550-7408.2002.tb00333.x|issn=1066-5234|pmid=11908893}}</ref>. It was during his time at [[The College of William and Mary]] that Siddall began working on a solution to the long-standing problem of correlating ordinal fossil age (stratigraphic) data to bifurcating tree structures in a manner that was not biased by the shape of the tree.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4523848?seq=1|title=Abstract of Papers. Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology|date=1997|via=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1096-0031.1998.tb00333.x|title=Stratigraphic Fit to Phylogenies: A Proposed Solution|author=Mark Siddall|date=1998|via=Cladistics}}</ref>


Siddall has worked and published on parasitic and other animals, including leeches,<ref name=Zimmer>{{Cite news|last=Zimmer|first=Carl|date=2006-02-07|title=His Subject: Highly Evolved and Exquisitely Thirsty |work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/science/his-subject-highly-evolved-and-exquisitely-thirsty.html|access-date=2021-04-13|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> jellyfish,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yong|first=Ed|date=2016-08-22|title=A Tiny Jellyfish Relative Just Shut Down Yellowstone River|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/08/the-parasite-that-just-shut-down-a-montana-river-has-an-unbelievable-origin/496817/|access-date=2021-04-13|website=The Atlantic}}</ref> guinea worms,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Palmer|first=Brian|date=2015-03-10|title=We're on the Verge of the Greatest Public Health Triumph of the 21st Century|url=https://slate.com/technology/2015/03/guinea-worm-eradication-nylon-filters-and-caring-about-others-bring-a-public-health-victory.html|access-date=2021-04-13|website=Slate Magazine}}</ref> and bed bugs.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Borel|first=Brooke|date=2016-02-02 |title=Bed bug genome shows how gnarly these creatures really are|url=https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/2/10891676/bed-bug-genome-sequencing-findings-nature-communications|access-date=2021-04-13|website=The Verge}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kolbert|first=Elizabeth|title=Old Bugs|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/old-bugs|access-date=2021-04-13|magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>
Subsequently, Siddall was a Michigan Society of Fellow from 1996 - 1999<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lsa.umich.edu/herbarium/news-events/all-events.detail.html/37412-6534097.html|title=All Events &#124; U-M LSA University of Michigan Herbarium|website=lsa.umich.edu}}</ref> at the University of Michigan where he worked closely with [[Arnold G. Kluge|Arnold Kluge]] taking on Jessica Light (now faculty at [[Texas A&M University|TAMU]]) as an undergraduate intern. It was during his time as a Michigan Society Fellow that Siddall, drawing heavily on [[Karl Popper]], formulated his controversial critique of maximum likelihood for the inference of phylogenies<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Siddall|first=Mark E.|last2=Kluge|first2=Arnold G.|date=1997|title=Probabilism and Phylogenetic Inference|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1096-0031.1997.tb00322.x|journal=Cladistics|language=en|volume=13|issue=4|pages=313–336|doi=10.1111/j.1096-0031.1997.tb00322.x|issn=1096-0031}}</ref> arguing that "appeals to some metaphysical truth must be abandoned in favour of the realism of sophisticated falsification". It was also during this period in which (at Mindell's invitation) he exposed flaws in [[David Mindell]]'s analysis of HIV coevolution<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mindell|first=David P.|last2=Shultz|first2=Jeffrey W.|last3=Ewald|first3=Paul W.|date=1995|title=The AIDS Pandemic Is New, But Is HIV New?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2413484|journal=Systematic Biology|volume=44|issue=1|pages=77–92|doi=10.2307/2413484|issn=1063-5157}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Siddall|first=Mark E.|date=1997|title=The AIDS Pandemic is New, but is HIV Not New?|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1096-0031.1997.tb00319.x|journal=Cladistics|language=en|volume=13|issue=3|pages=267–273|doi=10.1111/j.1096-0031.1997.tb00319.x|issn=1096-0031}}</ref> the result of which was Mindell expelling Siddall from the molecular labs instead of coauthoring the correction as Siddall had invited.


He is author of the science book ''Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences''.<ref name="Siddall2014">{{cite book|author=Mark Siddall|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4PVBmQEACAAJ|title=Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company, Incorporated|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4549-0764-0}}</ref>
Siddall was hired at the [[American Museum of Natural History]] in July, 1999<ref name="auto1" /> and served there as a curator until September, 2020. The first researcher he sponsored in his new role was [[Susan Perkins (scientist)|Susan Perkins]] in order to allow her to achieve a major contribution to understanding the evolution of malaria parasites<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Perkins|first=Susan L.|last2=Schall|first2=JosJ|date=2002/10|title=A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF MALARIAL PARASITES RECOVERED FROM CYTOCHROME b GENE SEQUENCES|url=https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-parasitology/volume-88/issue-5/0022-3395(2002)088[0972:AMPOMP]2.0.CO;2/A-MOLECULAR-PHYLOGENY-OF-MALARIAL-PARASITES-RECOVERED-FROM-CYTOCHROME-b/10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[0972:AMPOMP]2.0.CO;2.full|journal=Journal of Parasitology|volume=88|issue=5|pages=972–978|doi=10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[0972:AMPOMP]2.0.CO;2|issn=0022-3395}}</ref>. Even though she removed Siddall from authorship on that paper which could not have been completed without his support, Siddall nonetheless took her on as his first postdoctoral scholar, supported her hire at the University of Colorado, and encouraged her to apply to a microbiology curatorship at the [[American Museum of Natural History|American Museum of Natural History.]]


In 2016, Siddall, [[Jonathan Eisen]], and others were involved in the Twitter controversy #ParsimonyGate.<ref name=":0"/>
Siddall took over stewardship of the museum's summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program in 2000 shepherding it through uninterrupted National Science Foundation Grant funding for two decades. The program saw the mentorship of more than 200 undergraduates in biodiversity and evolutionary biology research, 52% under grant DBI-1358465 were recruited from academic institutions where research opportunities in STEM are limited<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Siddall|first=Mark|date=2019-08-28|title=REU SITE: Systematics, Evolution and Conservation for the 21st Century|url=https://marksiddall.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/siddallnsfreu8.28.2019.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>. Siddall is known for matching the representation of women (71%) and minorities (31%) in the program to the proportions of those applying<ref name=":0" />. Fully 39% of the interns he admitted into the program are in tenure track faculty positions among whom women represent 67%<ref name=":0" />. Among his former interns are [[Lauren Esposito]] at the California Academy of Sciences and [[Anna J. Phillips]] at the Smithsonian Institution.


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.<ref name="auto" /> 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."<ref name="auto" /> Siddall denied that any sexual encounter ever took place, and claimed he was fired because "he had found a serious error" in a paper.<ref name="auto" />
The [[American Museum of Natural History]] let him go in September 2020 after an outside law firm retained by the museum to represent its interests, Kaplan Hecker & Fink<ref name = "Jacobs">{{cite news|last=Jacobs|first=Julia|date=2020-10-02|title=Museum Fires Curator Who It Says Sexually Harassed Student Researcher|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/arts/mark-siddall-sexual-harassment.html|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> led by Roberta Kaplan (co-founder of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/style/media-men-list-lawsuit.html|title=Time’s Up Co-Founder to Represent Media Men List Creator|publisher=New York Times|date=|accessdate=2018-10-16}}</ref>) provided the museum with a determination that he had sexually harassed and bullied a graduate student as conclusion to a complaint that did not include either of those charges. The choice of Kaplan Hecker & Fink deviated from all prior investigations of sexual harassment at the [[American Museum of Natural History]] which were handled by T&M Protection.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/sexual-misconduct-case-has-rocked-anthropology|title=The sexual misconduct case that has rocked anthropology|author=Sceincemag.org|date=2016-02-09}}</ref><ref name = "TysonTM">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/arts/design/neil-degrasse-tyson-keeps-job.html|title=After Investigation, Neil deGrasse Tyson Will Keep His Job|date=2019-07-26|author=New York Times}}</ref> The investigation of [[Neil de Grasse Tyson]] by T&M Protection allowed him to keep his job in spite of multiple complaints, some of which he admitted were true.<ref name = "TysonTM"/> As part of the investigation, which occurred when the [[American Museum of Natural History]] was seeking to fill a $120 million budget gap,<ref>{{cite news|last=Jacobs|first=Julia|date=2020-05-06|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/arts/design/natural-history-layoffs-virus.html|title=Natural History Museum Slashing Staff With Layoffs and Furloughs|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> Siddall was cited for violating a museum policy that prohibits sexual relationships between staff and mentees under their academic supervision.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnh.org/content/download/56829/914521/file/RGGS%20Handbook%20for%20Students%20and%20Faculty%20on%20Academic%20and%20Conduct%20Policies%20and%20Procedures%20January%202017.pdf |title=Richard Gilder Graduate School Handbook for Students and Faculty on Academic and Conduct Policies and Procedures|publisher=AMNH.org|date= |accessdate=2021-02-22}}</ref> Siddall denied anything sexual and denied that the graduate student was ever under his supervision.<ref name = "Siddall2Jacobs"/> In support of Siddall's claim, the AMNH's own graduate school roster from that time period does not indicate any student being under his academic supervision either in the museum's own Richard Gilder Graduate School Comparative Biology program or in its Collaborative Program at partnering universities.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303060700/https://www.amnh.org/research/richard-gilder-graduate-school/meet-our-phd-students|title=Meet Our PhD Students|publisher=Internet Archive|date= |accessdate=2020-03-03}}</ref>

Siddall asserted that nothing of a sexual nature ever took place.<ref name = "Siddall2Jacobs">{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222211028/https://marksiddall.net/reply_to_jacobs/|title=Response to New York Times Inquiry – September 23, 2020 |publisher=Internet Archive|date=|accessdate=2021-02-22}}</ref> Worried about data-fabrication in a paper they were coauthoring, Siddall asked to remove his name from the paper on 22 May 2020.<ref name = "Jacobs"/><ref name = "Siddall2Jacobs"/> Within days of that request<ref name = "Siddall2Jacobs"/> the graduate student filed a sexual assault complaint that was not upheld in the investigation.<ref name = "Jacobs"/>

Siddall also publicly disagreed with the lesser harassment findings that led to his dismissal, however, he chose to not appeal the decision to protect his family from legal costs as his son was entering remote Kindergarten, his daughter was applying to colleges and his wife was trying to complete her own graduate degree.<ref name = "Jacobs"/><ref name = "Siddall2Jacobs"/> The [[American Museum of Natural History]] responded with termination, even though there was no record of a prior sexual harassment complaint against Siddall,<ref name = "Siddall2Jacobs"/> thus putting Siddall out of work, and ineligible for unemployment benefits<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/collecting-unemployment-benefits-new-york-32507-2.html#:~:text=In%20New%20York%2C%20employees%20who,not%20qualify%20for%20unemployment%20benefits.&text=If%20you%20quit%20your%20job,had%20good%20cause%20for%20quitting|title=How to Collect Unemployment Benefits in New York|author = Nolo.com|accessdate=2021-04-09}}</ref> in the middle of a global pandemic.


==Research==
==Research==


Siddall studies [[phylogenetics]] and evolution.<ref name=Zimmer/> Siddall has been described as "a staunch supporter of [[Maximum parsimony (phylogenetics)|parsimony]] and a harsh critic of maximum likelihood approaches”, although "having mellowed a bit on that".<ref name="auto2">{{Cite journal|title=Society Business|author1=Burreson, Eugene M.|author2=Siddall, Mark E.|author3=Connors, Vincent A.|year=2002 |journal=The Journal of Parasitology|volume=88 |issue=6|pages=1053–1070|doi=10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[1053:IOMESA]2.0.CO;2|jstor=3285473|pmid=12537094 |s2cid=44766356 }}</ref>
Siddall procured millions of dollars in grant funding for the [[American Museum of Natural History]] from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and several private foundations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://marksiddall.net/grants/|title=Grants Awarded to Mark Siddall|author=MarkSiddall.net|date=2021-04-08}}</ref> He has an h-index of 50 having authored 169 peer-reviewed publications that have been cited over 9,000 times.<ref name = "SiddallScholar"/> Siddall's expertise covers the biodiversity, detection and disease roles of pathogens and how they inform socioeconomic and ecosystem health.<ref name = "SiddallScholar"/> His international field work has covered more than 30 countries across South American, Asia and Africa, mostly in developing countries including the Carter Center's program in South Sudan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://marksiddall.net/explorer/|title=Mark Siddall Explorer|author=MarkSiddall.net|date=2021-04-08}}</ref>

He has actively engaged the transformation of DNA sequencing from the days of reading radioactive traces by-eye to the current next-gen (NGS) frameworks and their myriad applications. At the Institute of Comparative Genomics, Siddall spearheaded the build-out the NGS program at the [[American Museum of Natural History]] while pushing for a bioinformatics team as a community resource. He has sequenced whole animal genomes from scratch (i.e., unguided “de novo”) leveraging Illumina, Moleculo, and PacBio for the Bed Bug genome, and most recently 10x Genomics for the whole genome of the Medicinal Leech.<ref name = "SiddallScience">{{Cite web|url=https://marksiddall.net/science/|title=Mark Siddall Peer Reviewed Publications|author=MarkSiddall.net|date=2021-04-08}}</ref> His published work includes RNAseq transcriptomics, much of which is tissue-specific (e.g., anticoagulants in salivary gland cells of blood-feeding vectors).<ref name = "SiddallScience"/>

Siddall's research ranges from genome-wide screens of tuberculosis against immune system reporter genes to deep metagenomic assessments of biodiversity and their associated microbiomes.<ref name = "SiddallScholar"/> He has innovated on environmental DNA (eDNA/iDNA), metagenomics and high-resolution scientific imaging,<ref name = "SiddallScholar"/> much of which was translated for public consumption in the award-winning exhibition (Picturing Science).

He has published extensively on [[leech]] [[systematics]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00017378|title=Leeches (Oligochaeta?: Euhirudinea), their phylogeny and the evolution of life-history strategies|first1=Mark E.|last1=Siddall|first2=Eugene M.|last2=Burreson|date=October 1, 1996|journal=Hydrobiologia|volume=334|issue=1|pages=277–285|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1007/BF00017378|s2cid=21736028}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790397904553|title=Phylogeny of Leeches (Hirudinea) Based on Mitochondrial CytochromecOxidase Subunit I|first1=Mark E.|last1=Siddall|first2=Eugene M.|last2=Burreson|date=February 1, 1998|journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|volume=9|issue=1|pages=156–162|via=ScienceDirect|doi=10.1006/mpev.1997.0455|pmid=9479704}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/messages/downloadsexceeded.html|title=Download Limit Exceeded|website=citeseerx.ist.psu.edu}}</ref>


== References ==
== References ==
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[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian biologists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian biologists]]
[[Category:Canadian expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Canadian expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Evolutionary biologists]]
[[Category:Canadian evolutionary biologists]]
[[Category:21st-century biologists]]
[[Category:21st-century Canadian biologists]]
[[Category:University of Toronto alumni]]
[[Category:University of Toronto alumni]]
[[Category:People associated with the American Museum of Natural History]]
[[Category:People associated with the American Museum of Natural History]]
[[Category:Phylogenetics]]
[[Category:Phylogenetics researchers]]
[[Category:Parasitology]]
[[Category:Canadian parasitologists]]
[[Category:1966 births]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Society of Parasitologists]]

Latest revision as of 09:17, 7 April 2024

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "Twitter Nerd-Fight Reveals a Long, Bizarre Scientific Feud". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2021-06-26.
  10. ^ a b 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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