Benson defended his PhD dissertation in Neuroscience at Georgetown University in 2017, and also completed a 1-year Post Doc at Georgetown in 2018. Benson then joined the NIAAA as a Postdoctoral Fellow in October 2018. During his PhD, he studied the effects of genetic polymorphisms associated with adult alcohol use problems on adolescent cognition utilizing fMRI. During his first Post Doc, he used fMRI to study cross-modal interactions of the somatosensory, auditory and visual sensory systems. His current interests include how genetics influence alcohol sensitivity and alcohol consumption behaviors, and the underlying neural mechanisms involved.