Honors and Awards

• Distinguished Achievement Award, Carleton College Alumni Association, 2023
• Cocconi Prize, European Physical Society, 2021
• Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2012
• Ross Coffin Purdy Award, American Ceramic Society, 1995
• Exxon Award in Inorganic Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 1984

Research Interests

Professor Benziger's interests are in chemical reaction engineering and catalysis. His recent work has focused on reactors for organic vapor deposition for electronic devices, design, operation and control of Polymer Membrane Fuel Cells, and new reactor processing for sulfur removal from petroleum. In collaboration with Professor Steve Forrest Professor Benziger and has developed new reactor designs for the successful implementation of continuous large scale process of organic thin films for OLEDs and patterning methods with Organic Vapor Phase Jet Deposition. This work has successfully demonstrated the key design and control parameters for OVPD and OVJP key to the demonstrations of these techniques by Professors Forrest's and Benziger's groups. In the Fuel Cell area Professor Benziger's group has developed new reactor configurations for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells that provide the essential information for controlling the dynamic behavior of PEM fuel cells. This work has demonstrated the existence of steady state multiplicity in PEM fuel cells along with a key discovery of the coupling of the chemical reaction in the fuel cell with mechanical relaxation processes in the polymer membrane. Professor Benziger and his group have also reported detailed measurements of mechanical and transport properties of polymer electrolyte membranes leading to improved polymer membrane operation in fuel cells. Professor Benziger has been a part of the Borexino Solar Neutrino collaboration where he has led the group that developed the methodology and equipment to purify multi-ton quantities of liquid scintillator.  The development of the unique purification system has permitted the first measurements of the low energy solar neutrino spectrum.