Derek Siveter gained his BSc., and his Ph.D. in which he investigated Ordovician to Devonian trilobites from NW Europe, from the University of Leicester. There followed positions at Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Hull, and now the University of Oxford where he is one of the curators in the University Museum of Natural History and Reader in Earth Sciences. Fossil arthropods and Lower Palaeozoic (especially Silurian) geology have been central to his research interests. In recent years he has also been investigating the mode of preservation, palaeobiology, systematics and evolutionary significance of the animals of the Herefordshire (Silurian) Lagerstätte.