Twin success for geologist brothers

Posted by pt91 at Jan 26, 2012 01:35 PM | Permalink

A Leicester graduate returns to receive the same degree as his twin brother at tomorrow's Graduation ceremonies

Derek (not David) Siveter.

At the Degree Congregation on Friday 27 January at 4.00pm you may be forgiven for thinking you are seeing double, when Professor Derek Siveter, twin brother of Leicester’s own Professor David Siveter, will receive a DSc from the University of Leicester.

Both David and Derek are Leicester graduates. They read for BSc degrees in Geology and Geography, and then both took a PhD in palaeontology, supervised by the late Professor Peter Sylvester-Bradley, the first Professor of Geology at Leicester.

Their post-doctoral studies were carried out in different institutions. David remained at Leicester's Department of Geology, where he became Professor of Palaeontology, and Derek moved to Trinity College Dublin, ultimately becoming Professor and Curator of Geology at the University Museum of Natural History at Oxford.

Both of them retired at the end of September and continue their research in an Emeritus capacity. Now, they are probably also clocking up a first for twins to hold a Leicester DSc.

That my brother Derek has been awarded a DSc from our Alma Mater, Leicester, gives me great pleasure and pride. Fossils are our business. Our careers have mirrored each other fairly closely, in that we are both academics and palaeontologists specialising in fossil arthropods as a group, and in the rocks and faunas dating from about 400-530 million years ago. Although, clearly, we have forged separate research careers, we have also collaborated on several very enjoyable and high profile research projects, especially in China and the Welsh Borderland, over the last 20 years. It's been great fun to work together.

Professor David Siveter, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Geology

It’s indeed very satisfying to me to come full circle and be awarded this degree by Leicester – where David in the interim four decades has contributed so much to the Geology Department in general, and to the international reputation of the palaeontology group there in particular.

Professor Derek Siveter