Ben received a Bachelor's degree from Penn State University and a Master's degree from University of California, Berkeley; both in Mechanical Engineering. His research at UC Berkeley was sponsored by NASA and involved the design of a portable instrument for detection of previous life on Mars. Ben joined LCOGT in the Fall of 2005 and has worked on a variety of projects focused primarily on upgrading the instrumentation on our 2 meter class telescopes. Prior to working at LCOGT, Ben competed in the Hawaii Ironman and raced on a top American professional cycling team.