Ben received his B.S. in Physics from Purdue in 1998. He worked for Cummins Engine Co and Intel before attending graduate school at UC Davis. He received a Masters in Engineering Applied Science in 2001 and a Ph.D. in 2005. Ben joined the NCN @ Purdue team in November 2006 and transferred to the HUBzero team in January 2010. He also works as a research scientist with the Center for Predictive Materials Modeling and Simulation at Purdue.