Dr. Frederic Zaidan III
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Success
College of Sciences
ESCNE 4.637
Email:
frederic.zaidan@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 665-3414
Fred Zaidan is currently the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Success in the College of Sciences and a Professor of Biology. Before joining the Dean’s Office as an Associate Dean in June 2018, he served as Biology Chair for 5.5 years. This academic year is the beginning of his 20th here in the Valley.
Fred was born and raised in rural Western Pennsylvania. He spent his early years chasing critters in the woods and fields surrounding his home. Much of this was in preparation for his career as a herpetologist (which he declared the summer before first grade).
Fred received his Bachelors in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, his Masters in Biology from the University of Mississippi, and his PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Arkansas. He received postdoctoral training at the University of Florida before joining a legacy institution in Fall 2003. As a physiological ecologist, he seeks to understand how the environment affects the inner workings of the organism (mostly snakes in his case) and how this feeds back into where they can live and when they can be active.
