Ben engages students in the scientific process via critical evaluation of primary literature and participation in research. He feels that science literacy and the skills it provides (the abilities to gather information, assess its credulity, weigh evidence and draw conclusions) is paramount to good citizenship. His research program relies heavily on undergraduate researchers and he finds mentoring these students to be the single most gratifying aspect of his job.

Ben’s research program challenges a core assumption of community ecology theory: that populations function as homogenous units in their interactions with one another and the abiotic environment. He studies how individual-level phenotypic trait variation, the raw material for natural selection, scales up via species interactions to dictate population- and community-level dynamics. He utilizes model aquatic crustacean systems that allow unique insight into the mechanistic basis of effects or permit scaling to higher organizational levels.

curriculum vitae