Discoverer of Marquessen's Datura.
While employed as a field researcher and statistician for the United Genome Corporation in the Pacific islands, Marquessen noticed an unusual trend in the statistics for natives of San Corenzo: the island's less affluent residents were far less likely to develop cancer than those with more money for health care.
Ordinarily, such statistics are an artifact of lifespan: the wealthier one is, the more likely one is to live long enough to be at significant risk of contracting a disease such as cancer. What Marquessen noticed, however, was that the trend remained significant even when corrected for age: the poorer a resident was, the less likely to develop cancer.
After lengthy investigation, Marquessen and his team of researchers were able to successfully trace the islanders' immunity to their consumption for recreational purposes of what is now called Marquessen's Datura. Further testing isolated a specific set of organic compounds in the datura which were revealed, in laboratory trails to prevent (and in some cases cure) cancer in humans.
Tragically, Marquessen was never to taste the fruits of his discovery. Though his contract with UGC promised him
...a fraction not less than two percent of all profits directly obtained from said employee's discoveries, patents, and inventions made while employed by the United Genome Corporation...UGC argued that Marquessen was himself only "directly" responsible for the initial reports linking the datura to decreased incidence of cancer, not for the extraction of Torzone itself. After several years of legal frustrations, a federal judge ruled that, under the terms of Marquessen's contract as written, it was up to UGC to determine which profits (if any) had been "directly obtained" from Marquessen's discoveries.
"To be honest, I'm shocked. It's one thing for a company to look out for the bottom line, but UGC paints itself as a caring, humane, family corporation, one that's out for the good of humankind. When we're talking about the single most significant medical discovery of the twenty-first century, it seems awfully petty of them to keep me employees from sharing in the profits of my work."
- Andrew Marquessen, as quoted in New York Times, 20 March 2015
"Marquessen was hired a statistician. He did not discover Torzone, isolate Torzone, or purify Torzone. He did not even develop a practical method for harvesting the shrub that bears his name. Simply because a man lays the groundwork for a life-saving product, does not mean that the product is his."
- Carl Eriksen, CEO of UGC, as quoted in the New York Times, 20 March 2015.
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