Dr. Bendesky got his MD from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, his PhD from Rockefeller University, and was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard. He is currently Associate Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology and PI at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute for Mind Brain and Behavior. He is a prolific investigator, and his papers have been published in top tier journals such as Science, Nature, and Neuron. The Bendesky lab aims to understand how and why animals behave the way they do, with a special emphasis on social behaviors and other behaviors critical for survival. To answer these questions, he takes a truly interdisciplinary approach (or, as Andres puts it, a “holistic, multilevel ethological approach”) using tools from evolutionary, quantitative, and molecular genetics, in addition to biochemistry, endocrinology, developmental biology, and neuroscience. Their study species are optimized to specific questions, such as monogamous species to study pair bonding and parental care, prey species to study responses to threats, and animals bred for fighting to study aggression. While his main focus is behavior, his lab also works on other long-standing questions in evolutionary biology, like the molecular mechanisms that prevent species from mixing with each other.