Mark E. Siddall

Mark E. Siddall is a Canadian biologist and former curator at the American Museum of Natural History. Siddall has studied the evolution and systematics of blood parasites and leeches, and systematic theory . Siddall was hired as an assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History 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. and PhD under the supervision of Sherwin S. Desser at the University of Toronto in 1991 and 1994, respectively.

Career

After completing his PhD, Siddall completed a postdoc at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He also acted as treasurer of the Willi Hennig Society, publisher of the journal Cladistics.

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