Joy Reidenberg


Joy S. Reidenberg is an American comparative anatomist specializing in the vocal and breathing apparatus of mammals, particularly cetaceans. She is best known as the Comparative Anatomist in the TV science documentary series Inside Nature's Giants. In this series, she performed dissections of the animals to demonstrate anatomy, and explained how these adaptations function in live animals.
Reidenberg became interested in animal science and art as a high school student. She earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1983, a master's from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Graduate Program in Biological Sciences in 1985, and a doctorate in Biomedical Sciences: Anatomy in 1988. There, she worked with anthropologist Jeffrey Laitman. In 2009, a British production company approached her about coming to Ireland on a short notice to help dissect a 19.8 m fin whale that had washed up on the south coast. She conducted the dissection, and the company was so happy with her performance that they asked her to become a regular contributor to Inside Nature's Giants, dissecting a variety of animals, including: fin whale, sperm whale, lion, tiger, elephant, giraffe, hippo, crocodile, python, great white shark, giant squid, camel, kangaroo, cassowary, baboon, leatherback sea turtle, polar bear, race horse, giant jungle insects. She also starred in the 4 episode series "Sex in the Wild", also known as "Born in the Wild", about animal reproduction in elephants, orangutans, dolphins, and kangaroos. She was also featured in a 3-day live series called "Big Blue Live" on PBS about marine life in Monterey Bay, California.
Reidenberg currently works in New York City and is a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai's Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology, where she teaches in the Structures Course. She is also the Course Director for General Anatomy at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine.