Ben grew up in Alaska. He received his BS and MS in Theoretical Chemistry from Utah State University. He obtained his PhD in experimental Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics from Yale University where he studied mass spectrometry, infrared laser spectroscopy, and photoelectron spectroscopy. He worked as a research scientist at UCLA in ultra-fast laser spectroscopy. He then worked on the high-resolution vibrational spectroscopy of the isotopologues of carbon dioxide at NASA/JPL as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow. He now works as a researcher and lab manager in the Tripati Lab at UCLA.