CUTV News Radio spotlights biologist Dr. John S. Mackiewicz

Albany, NY – Dr. John S. Mackiewicz is a retired biology professor who dedicated his career to studying the evolution and biology of parasites and the systematics of cestodes, or tapeworms as they are commonly known. Dr. Mackiewicz’s primary research focused on the ecology, morphology, systematics, zoogeography, host-parasite relationships.

“Whether you like it or not, you have an awful lot of organisms in your gut,” says Dr. Mackiewicz. “Some can be parasitic, especially if you start traveling in places where transmission is easy. However, if one is a healthy individual, you can have parasites of various sorts. In low numbers, they would have absolutely no effect on your well-being.”

Dr. Mackiewicz began his advanced education at Cornell University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science (1953), Master of Science (1954) and Doctor of Philosophy (1960). Prior to obtaining his Ph.D., he served as Instructor of Medical Entomology and Parasitology at Cornell (1957-1959) and pursued a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Institutes of Health, where he continued his research at the Institute de Zoologie in Neuch?tel, Switzerland.

Upon arriving back in the United States in 1961, Dr. Mackiewicz joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the State University of New York at Albany, where he would remain for 56 years. In that time, Dr. Mackiewicz has authored or co-authored 86 publications and described 22 new species of tapeworms. In fact, his colleagues have named seven species of parasitic worms after him.

“Most students who have taken my course and most individuals that I talk with have very little knowledge of parasites because you don't see them,” says Dr. Mackiewicz. “I get great satisfaction educating individuals to appreciate living things, biology.”