Joshua Bembenek, Ph.D., has joined the Wayne State University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development as an associate professor on the research educator track.

A widely published and frequently sought lecturer, Dr. Bembenek served as an assistant professor of Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Tennessee from 2012 to 2019, and then as a Molecular, Cellular and Developmental assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan.

He received a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology in 1998 from Texas A&M University and his doctoral degree in Biomedical Sciences from UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2004. He conducted postdoctoral research at U-M, the Carnegie Institute of Washington and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A member of the Society for Developmental Biology, the Genetics Society of America and the American Society for Cell Biology, Dr. Bembenek is the recipient of the Newcomb Cleveland Prize for Best Science Paper from the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the Junior Faculty Distinguished Scholarship Award from the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Department at the University of Tennessee; the 2003 Alfred Gilman Scholarship for outstanding doctoral thesis project from the UT Southwestern Medical Center; and the Sigma Xi Abstract Competition Award.