Mark Siddall

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Mark Siddall
Siddall in Madagascar, 2020
Born (1966-11-22) November 22, 1966 (age 57)
Toronto, Canada
Children2
Scientific career
Fields

Mark E. Siddall is a Canadian invertebrate zoologist, data scientist and infectious disease expert.[1]

Siddall's research has focused on the diversity and evolutionary biology of a wide range of parasites, and he is the author of Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences. He has curated of the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life and other exhibitions. Siddall received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1994, is a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal from the American Society of Parasitologists and is a Fellow of The Explorers Club.[2]

Education

Siddall completed a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Immunology, a Masters[3] and PhD in Parasitology[4] under the supervision of Sherwin S. Desser and Bob Murphy at the University of Toronto in 1988, 1991 and 1994, respectively.[5]

Research

Siddall has worked and published on parasitic and other animals, including leeches[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] jellyfish,[18] guinea worms,[19] and bed bugs.[20][21]

Exhibitions

Picturing Science

More than 20 sets of striking large-format prints, showcasing advanced imaging technologies used by scientists at AMNH (e.g., CT, SEM, fluorescence, histology) and revealing once-hidden, intricate details of both natural phenomena and cultural artifacts. One of the longest running exhibitions ever mounted by the museum, and one that includes research from all divisions of science. The video produced for YouTube garnered the museum's first and only Webby award.[22]

Power of Poison

Explores poison's paradoxical roles in nature, human health and history, literature, and myth. From toxic species that live in a remote Colombian forest, where poisons are just one of many tools in organisms’ struggles to survive, to familiar tales of illness, enchantment, or death by poison—a feature of countless fairytales, myths, and legends from around the world. History's most intriguing poisoning cases, many of which remain puzzling today, lead into a live presentation about a real-world poisoning case and key advances in toxicology, the science of detecting poison and the use of poisons in medicine. NYTimes critic Ed Rothstien wrote of Siddall's efforts: “deft curatorial alchemy... one of the most theatrical exhibitions the museum has mounted.”[8]

Life at the Limits / Nature's Superheroes

This exhibition reveals the diverse and sometimes jaw-dropping strategies animals and plants use to reproduce, find food, sense the world around them, and thrive in inhospitable habitats. Over billions of years, living things have evolved from simple cells into an awe-inspiring array of life forms—a spectacle of behaviors, specialized parts, and exacting skills. Some species are familiar. But others are so amazing that they test the limits of our imagination. Life-size and larger-than-life models, live animals, videos, and interactive exhibits highlight a variety of 'superpowers' across the tree of life

Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease

A collaboration with the Carter Center, this exhibition highlights the scientific and social innovations that are ridding the world of ancient afflictions with a focus on several global efforts that have been able to contain, eliminate, or eradicate disease. Chief among these is the 30-year campaign that may soon eradicate Guinea worm disease, positioning it to become only the second human disease ever eradicated, after smallpox. The exhibition also highlights the ongoing programs to eliminate polio and prospects for more localized elimination of river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and malaria. American Museum of Natural History; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine;[23] The Carter Center;[24] Crown Prince's Court – Abu Dhabi;[25] The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.[26]

Career

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.[27] 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.[28] His phylogenetic work showing that Perkinsus marinus is a dinoflagellate[29][30] overturned environmental monitoring methods.[31] At The College of William and Mary 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.[32][33]

Subsequently, Siddall was a Michigan Society of Fellow from 1996 - 1999[34] at the University of Michigan where he worked closely with Arnold Kluge taking on Jessica Light (now faculty at TAMU) as an undergraduate intern. It was as a Michigan Society Fellow that Siddall that Siddall drew heavily on Karl Popper in formulating an urgent critique of maximum likelihood for the inference of phylogenies.[35] It was also during this period in which Siddall contributed to understanding the coevolutionary history of HIV coevolution.[36][37]

Siddall was hired at the American Museum of Natural History in July, 1999[38] and served there as a curator until September, 2020. The first researcher he sponsored in his new role was Susan Perkins in order to allow her to achieve a major contribution to understanding the evolution of malaria parasites.[39] Siddall took her on as his first postdoctoral scholar, supported her hire at the University of Colorado, and encouraged her to apply to the microbiology curatorship at the American Museum of Natural History. His other post-doctoral scholars include Kirsten Jensen who is Senior Curator, Professor and Associate Chair of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas[40] who worked with Siddall on tapeworms, Kenneth Macdonald at the Smithsonian[41] who worked with Siddall on amphipods, and Maite Aguado Molina now at the University of Göttingen[42] who worked with Siddall on polychaetes.

Siddall took over stewardship of the museum's summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program in 2000 shepherding it through two decades of uninterrupted National Science Foundation grant funding. 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.[43] In 1999, Siddall outlined the trajectory of and strategies for retention of women in biological sciences.[44] Under his direction, the REU program achieved a representation of women (71%) and minorities (31%) that matched the proportions of those applying.[43] Fully 39% of the interns he admitted into the program are in tenure track faculty positions among whom women represent 67%.[43] His former interns include Lauren Esposito at the California Academy of Sciences and Anna J. Phillips at the Smithsonian Institution.

When Siddall asked to remove his name from a paper with falsified data in May 2020, the graduate student responsible for the errors immediately filed a sexual assault complaint.[45][46] Siddall denied that anything of a sexual nature took place, and he was cleared of charges in the complaint, but the American Museum of Natural History let him go in September 2020 even though the graduate student was not under his supervision.[46] (The AMNH's graduate school roster does not indicate any graduate student having 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.[47]) Siddall also publicly disagreed with the lesser harassment findings but, chose to not appeal the decision to due to mounting legal costs. There had been no prior sexual harassment complaint against Siddall.[46]

Awards

Year Award Awarded by
1984 Duke of Edinburg Award Prince Philip
1994 Ramsay Wright Award Department of Zoology, University of Toronto
1995 Clark P. Read Award American Society of Parasitologists
1996 Fellow Michigan Society of Fellows
1998 Sokol Award University of Michigan
2002 Henry Baldwin Ward Medal American Society of Parasitologists
2003 AGEP/MAGNET Mentoring Award City University of New York
2016 Soothsayer Award National Academy of Sciences

References

  1. ^ "Disease experts reveal their biggest worries about the next pandemic". 2021-03-12.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ECintro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "U of T Magazine | Winter 2014". Issuu.
  4. ^ "Mark Siddall". World Science Festival. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ Zimmer, Carl (2006-02-07). "His Subject: Highly Evolved and Exquisitely Thirsty". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  7. ^ Gorman, James (2012-06-25). "Falling in Love May Take a Lifetime of Research". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  8. ^ a b Rothstein, Edward (2013-11-14). "A Touch of the Toxic, for Good or Ill". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  9. ^ Blum, Deborah (2014-07-31). "A Toxic Menagerie". Well. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  10. ^ Flegenheimer, Matt (2014-08-01). "A Night of Dinosaurs and Stargazing (No Children Allowed)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  11. ^ Dean, Cornelia (2015-09-07). "The Tardigrade: Practically Invisible, Indestructible 'Water Bears'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  12. ^ Ray, C. Claiborne (2017-05-22). "A Taste for Poison in Warmer Climates?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  13. ^ Barron, James (2018-09-02). "It's the Biggest Oyster Found in New York in 100 Years. And It Has Stories to Tell". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  14. ^ Gorman, James (2019-10-28). "Meet the Bloodsuckers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  15. ^ Jr, Ralph Gardner (2014-03-19). "At Natural History Museum, the Lowdown on Leeches". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  16. ^ "Leech Expert Mark Siddall's Tech Essentials". Wall Street Journal. 2014-09-05. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  17. ^ Hsu, Michael (2015-07-10). "Best Bets for Avoiding Mosquitoes, Bees, Ants and Leeches". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  18. ^ Yong, Ed (2016-08-22). "A Tiny Jellyfish Relative Just Shut Down Yellowstone River". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ Borel, Brooke (2016-02-02). "Bed bug genome shows how gnarly these creatures really are". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  21. ^ Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Old Bugs". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  22. ^ "And The Webby Winner Is: Picturing Science".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ^ "Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | LSHTM". 2016-05-16. Archived from the original on 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  24. ^ "Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease". www.cartercenter.org. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  25. ^ "Sheikh Hamed opens Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease global exhibition in Abu Dhabi". The National. 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  26. ^ "Countdown to Zero". Gates Discovery Center. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  27. ^ "Google Scholar results for Siddall Burreson Haplosporidia Perkinsus". Retrieved 2021-04-09 – via Scholar.Google.com.
  28. ^ Burreson, E.M. (2004). "A review of recent information on the Haplosporidia, with special reference to Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX disease)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  29. ^ Reece, K. S.; Siddall, M. E.; Burreson, E. M.; Graves, J. E. (1997-06-XX). "Phylogenetic analysis of Perkinsus based on actin gene sequences". The Journal of Parasitology. 83 (3): 417–423. doi:10.2307/3284403. ISSN 0022-3395. JSTOR 3284403. PMID 9194820. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ Siddall, M. E.; Reece, K. S.; Graves, J. E.; Burreson, E. M. (1997-08-XX). "'Total evidence' refutes the inclusion of Perkinsus species in the phylum Apicomplexa". Parasitology. 115 ( Pt 2) (2): 165–176. doi:10.1017/s0031182097001157. ISSN 0031-1820. PMID 10190172. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ Bushek, David; Dungan, Christopher F.; Lewitus, Alan J. (2002-01-XX). "Serological affinities of the oyster pathogen Perkinsus marinus (Apicomplexa) with some dinoflagellates (Dinophyceae)". The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. 49 (1): 11–16. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.2002.tb00333.x. ISSN 1066-5234. PMID 11908893. S2CID 3196812. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ "Abstract of Papers. Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 17 (3): A1–A93. 1997. JSTOR 4523848.
  33. ^ Mark Siddall (1998). "Stratigraphic Fit to Phylogenies: A Proposed Solution". doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.1998.tb00333.x. hdl:2027.42/73634. S2CID 85089134 – via Cladistics. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  34. ^ "All Events | U-M LSA University of Michigan Herbarium". lsa.umich.edu.
  35. ^ Siddall, Mark E.; Kluge, Arnold G. (1997). "Probabilism and Phylogenetic Inference". Cladistics. 13 (4): 313–336. doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.1997.tb00322.x. hdl:2027.42/71951. ISSN 1096-0031. S2CID 13569003.
  36. ^ Mindell, David P.; Shultz, Jeffrey W.; Ewald, Paul W. (1995). "The AIDS Pandemic Is New, But Is HIV New?". Systematic Biology. 44 (1): 77–92. doi:10.2307/2413484. ISSN 1063-5157. JSTOR 2413484.
  37. ^ Siddall, Mark E. (1997). "The AIDS Pandemic is New, but is HIV Not New?". Cladistics. 13 (3): 267–273. doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.1997.tb00319.x. hdl:2027.42/71967. ISSN 1096-0031. S2CID 221576029.
  38. ^ Cite error: The named reference auto1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  39. ^ Perkins, Susan L.; Schall, JosJ (October 2002). "A MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF MALARIAL PARASITES RECOVERED FROM CYTOCHROME b GENE SEQUENCES". Journal of Parasitology. 88 (5): 972–978. doi:10.1645/0022-3395(2002)088[0972:AMPOMP]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0022-3395.
  40. ^ KU.edu. "Kirsten Jensen".
  41. ^ SI.edu. "Kenneth Macdonald III".
  42. ^ "Aguado Molina, Maria Teresa" – via ScholarGoogle.com.
  43. ^ a b c Siddall, Mark (2019-08-28). "REU SITE: Systematics, Evolution and Conservation for the 21st Century" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  44. ^ Siddall, Mark E. (1999-02-19). "Women in Biological Sciences". Science. 283 (5405): 1115d–1115. doi:10.1126/science.283.5405.1115d. ISSN 0036-8075. S2CID 176888511.
  45. ^ Jacobs, Julia (2020-10-02). "Museum Fires Curator Who It Says Sexually Harassed Student Researcher" – via NYTimes.com.
  46. ^ a b c "Response to New York Times Inquiry – September 23, 2020". Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 2021-02-22. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  47. ^ "Meet Our PhD Students". Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
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