Mark E. Siddall is a Canadian biologist and former curator at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. Siddall has studied the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and

systematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...

of blood parasites and

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

es, and systematic theory. Siddall was hired as an assistant curator at the

in July, 1999 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.

Education

Siddall completed a Masters and PhD under the supervision of Sherwin S. Desser at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1991 and 1994, respectively.

Career

After completing his PhD, Siddall completed a postdoc at the

Virginia Institute of Marine Science The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) is one of the largest marine research and education centers in the United States. Founded in 1940, VIMS is unique among marine science institutions in its legal mandate to provide research, educatio ...

. Subsequently, he was a fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows from 1996-1999. He also acted as treasurer of the

Willi Hennig Society The Willi Hennig Society "was founded in 1980 with the expressed purpose of promoting the field of phylogenetic systematics." The society is represented by phylogenetic systematists managing and publishing in the peer-reviewed journal titled ''Clad ...

, publisher of the journal ''

Cladistics Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

''. Siddall has worked and published on parasitic and other animals, including leeches, jellyfish, guinea worms, and bed bugs. He is author of the science book ''Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences''. In 2016, Siddall,

Jonathan Eisen Jonathan Andrew Eisen (born August 31, 1968) is an American evolutionary biologist, currently working at University of California, Davis. His academic research is in the fields of evolutionary biology, genomics and microbiology and he is the ac ...

, and others were involved in the Twitter controversy #ParsimonyGate. The

fired Siddall in September 2020 for alleged

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

, citing museum policy that prohibits sexual relationships between staff and mentees under their academic supervision. 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." Siddall denied that any sexual encounter ever took place, and claimed he was fired because "he had found a serious error" in a paper.

Research

Siddall studies

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek language, Greek wikt:φυλή, φυλή/wikt:φῦλον, φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary his ...

and evolution. Siddall has been described as "a staunch supporter of

parsimony Parsimony refers to the quality of economy or frugality in the use of resources. Parsimony may also refer to * The Law of Parsimony, or Occam's razor, a problem-solving principle ** Maximum parsimony (phylogenetics), an optimality criterion in p ...

and a harsh critic of maximum likelihood approaches”, although "having mellowed a bit on that".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siddall, Mark Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century Canadian biologists Canadian expatriates in the United States Evolutionary biologists 21st-century Canadian biologists University of Toronto alumni People associated with the American Museum of Natural History Phylogenetics researchers Canadian parasitologists Presidents of the American Society of Parasitologists