Randall J. Bendis, Ph.D.

I was born and raised in the best city in the world: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Throughout my childhood and into early adulthood, I was always deeply fascinated by science.  I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 with the initial intent to pursue a career in medicine, but initially put my plans on hold to do so and moved to California. After interning with the San Diego Zoo, I realized that I desperately wanted to further my education so I moved back to Pittsburgh where I worked in the conservation education department of the Pittsburgh Zoo before returning to the University of Pittsburgh to pursue a PhD in biology in the lab of Dr. Rick Relyea in 2010.  In the Fall of 2014, I moved with the Relyea lab group to their new home at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY where I finished my dissertation work.  I graduated with my PhD in April of 2015 from the University of Pittsburgh and have worked as an instructor at the University of Pittsburgh as well as an independently operating tutor in the life sciences.  Starting in the Fall of 2016, I will be an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and will be teaching an array of undergraduate courses in biology.  Exciting times lie ahead!

 

I love the outdoors and I enjoy running, swimming, biking, hiking, snowboarding, skydiving... anything to get the blood pumping!  When I am not working in the lab, I also enjoy playing video games, watching movies, going to trivia nights, and finding new beers to try!

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"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" - Carl Sagan