Mark Alan Hershkovitz is an American biochemist and taxonomist. The standard author abbreviation Hershk. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. In 1981 he received his Bachelor of Science from Illinois State University. He received his Master of science and PhD degrees from University of California, Davis in 1986 and 1990; his focus in his doctoral program was botany. Afterwards, he worked for the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics at the Smithsonian Institution as a postdoctoral scientist, and circa 1996 he joined the National Center for Biotechnology Information as a fellow under the Postdoctoral Intramural Research Training Award.