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]