Ben grew up in Brookline, MA and graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2011 with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry. During his time in Worcester, Ben researched the anti-inflammatory properties of endocannabinoids at UMass Medical School. Following this, he switched tracks and took on an internship in a psychology lab at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. After returning to the US, he worked on a study examining sleep and memory deficits in patients with schizophrenia. Ben joined the Stevens lab in September of 2015 to pursue his interests in neural-immune interactions and contribute to many ongoing projects in the lab, including those related to autism and schizophrenia.