During the course of his career Dr. MacLeod has been very active in encouraging the development of the life sciences in general and paleobiology in particular. In the run up to the millennium year he was responsible for development The Natural History Museum’s technical program of presentations, panel discussions and inter-institutional collaborations (e.g., Victoria & Albert Museum, Serpentine Gallery) for the museum’s millennium celebrations and server on the organizing committee for the Paleo21 Conference (sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and EU and held in Hamburg, Germany) that brought representatives from academia, government, industry, professional societies and non-professional interest groups together to set out a developmental agenda for the field of paleontology in the 21st century. As a result of these activities Dr. MacLeod founded the PaleoNet online communications system for paleontologists. Paleonet is the largest system of its kind in the field of paleontology, is the only system that crosses the boundaries between the various types of paleontology (e.g., micropaleontology, invertebrate paleontology, vertebrate paleontology, paleobotany) and has become part of the discipline’s core infrastructure. In order to facilitate electronic publishing in paleontology Dr. MacLeod also founded the world’s first online electronic paleontological journal, Palaeontologia Electronica in 1998 and served as its founding Executive Editor from 1998 – 2002. Dr. MacLeod has also served as an editorial board member of Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences) (2013–2019), Systematic Biology (2013–2019), and was the Co-Chief Editor of the Chinese Paleontological journal Paleoworld (2014 – 2019). In addition, Dr. MacLeod has been interviewed by numerous media outlet, appeared on television and radio programs, and written articles for leading international newspapers, including the BBC (radio and TV), ITV, the Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph in the UK, National Public Radio in the US and the Australian Broadcasting Service.
