Ben grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico and started his scientific journey at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He then moved to California and attended UC Santa Barbara for undergrad, majoring in Microbiology. There, he worked in Craig Montell’s lab and studied mosquito sensory neurobiology. Ben stayed on as a technician for a year before moving to Baltimore, Maryland to join the Microbiology and Immunology PhD program at Johns Hopkins. At Hopkins, he studied innate immune responses to Sindbis virus infection of the central nervous system. Ben joined the Esser-Kahn lab as a postdoc to apply his immunology background toward vaccine development.

Outside of lab, he enjoys live music, cooking, and traveling.