Eric S. Bennett, Ph.D., has been appointed professor and chair of the Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Physiology at Wright State University, effective October 1, 2016. Bennett comes to Wright State from the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine (USF MCOM) where he served as professor and vice chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology and associate dean for Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Programs. He was responsible for the development and implementation of new programs at the department and college levels in addition to maintaining significant teaching and course administration duties and an active and well-funded research program.
Bennett arrived at USF MCOM as an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics in 1997. In 2006, as the founding director of the USF MCOM Ph.D. program in integrated biomedical sciences, he oversaw the development and implementation of a new Ph.D. program, including the recruitment and admissions of all Ph.D. students, the curriculum, qualifying examinations, dissertation defenses and graduation publication requirements. He is highly heralded as an excellent educator at USF, having won many awards from medical students (five), Ph.D. students (two) and the Office of Educational Affairs (two).
In addition to his educational and administrative duties, he developed a federally funded, internationally recognized, independent research program at USF. His research focuses on understanding the control, modulation and pathophysiology of electrical signaling in the body, and how it contributes to cardiac, neuronal and skeletal muscle dysfunction. He is the principal investigator (PI) on multiple research projects — one funded by the National Science Foundation and another by the American Heart Association, Greater Southeast Affiliate — and is co-investigator or co-PI on two other federally funded projects.
