Wayne Paul Maddison (born 1958) is a Canadian evolutionary biologist,

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly ...

, and biological illustrator. He is Canada Research Chair in Biodiversity and a professor at the departments of zoology and botany at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, and the Director of the Spencer Entomological Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

Education and career

Maddison was born in London, Ontario and his interests in studying spiders started while he was a teenager exploring

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

. Maddison studied zoology at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, where he obtained his BSc in 1980. He went on to study at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, where he obtained his PhD in 1988 under the supervision of Herbert W. Levi. He was a NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

from 1988 to 1990, where he worked with Montgomery Slatkin. Maddison became an assistant professor and later associate professor at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

in 1990 and stayed there until 2003, during which he was David and Lucile Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering between 1993 and 1998. Maddison moved back to Canada in 2003 and joined the

(UBC), where he was a professor in zoology and botany. In the same year, he also became the director of the Spencer Entomological Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum of UBC.

Research

Maddison's research concerns the phylogeny, biodiversity, and evolution of jumping spiders (Salticidae), of which he has discovered new species and genera. His research has led him to discover new species of jumping spiders in

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Maddison has also done research in phylogenetic theory, developing and perfecting various methods used in comparative biology, such as character state inference in internal nodes through maximum parsimony, squared-change parsimony, or character correlation through the concentrated changes test or pairwise comparisons. In collaboration with his brother David R. Maddison, he worked on the Mesquite

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

phylogeny software, the MacClade program, and the

Tree of Life Web Project The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is an Internet project providing information about the diversity and phylogeny of life on Earth. This collaborative peer reviewed project began in 1995, and is written by biologists from around the world. The s ...

Selected publications

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References

External links

Wayne Maddison Lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maddison, Wayne P. 1958 births Living people University of Toronto alumni Harvard University alumni Canada Research Chairs Arachnologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Canadian zoologists People from London, Ontario Academic staff of the University of British Columbia University of Arizona faculty