 In 2018, Michigan State University appointed him as the associate departmental chairperson of the Department of Entomology and the director of Feed the Future Legume Systems Research Innovations Lab.In 2011, Pittendrigh was invited to speak at TEDxUIUC, where he spoke about a program he co-founded, Scientific Animations Without Borders.In 2017, he was invited to be a representative to the International Year of Pulses event at the United Nations.