Stuart Siddell has been elected as a Life Member of the ICTV
We are pleased to announce that Dr Stuart Siddell has been elected as a Life Member of the ICTV, following his nomination by the ICTV President and Data Secretary, recommendation by the Executive Committee (EC), and ratification by the ICTV membership. Stuart's Life Membership is in recognition of his long service as a member of ICTV Study Groups, Subcommittees, and the EC, and his key role in helping to define and modernize the guiding principles used to create the virus taxonomy. In addition, we also want to indicate our sincere appreciation for his calm demeanor, comforting presence, and unwavering friendship to members of the EC and ICTV over many years.
Stuart received his BSc. degree from the University of Liverpool, UK in 1972 and in 1973, a BSc. degree (Hons, Class I) in Botany. He was awarded a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Warwick, UK in 1976 and a Dr. rer. nat. habil. degree (Biochemie) from the University of Würzburg, Germany. After positions at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, UK and the University of Würzburg, Germany, Stuart continued his career at the University of Bristol as a Professor of Virology from 1992 until his retirement in 2015 when he became an Emeritus Professor of Virology. His research focused on the study of coronaviruses and included playing a role in the discovery of coronavirus discontinuous transcription, the development of reverse genetic systems for human, avian and murine coronaviruses, the elucidation of coronavirus protein structures and constructing a genetic map of coronavirus replicase protein function.
Stuart began his work with the ICTV in 1982 on the Coronaviridae Study Group, serving as chair and subsequently as a member until 2000. He also served as an ICTV National Member for the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2011. Stuart served on the Executive Committee as an Elected Member from 2008-2014, Chair of the Animal dsRNA and ssRNA- Viruses Subcommittee from 2014-2017, and then as Vice-President until 2023. Stuart was also Editor-in-Chief of the ICTV 10th Report, helping to guide the transition of this key product of the ICTV from a hard copy book to an online web-based resource. Overall, Stuart provided over 40 years of service to the ICTV, including 16 years on the EC.
During his tenure on the EC, Stuart was a key participant in several significant changes to the processes, methods, and intellectual underpinning of the approaches used by the ICTV to guide the classification of viruses and name the resulting taxa. These changes included the creation of higher rank taxonomic categories that support the deeper evolutionary classification of viruses; the use of complete genomic sequences of viruses assembled from metagenomic samples as the basis for taxonomic classification; and the establishment of evolutionary history as a key, guiding principle underlying the ICTV taxonomy.
Posted March 3, 2025