About Ben Rush

Ben grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, experiencing a mix of the outdoors, frequent zoo visits, and a wealth of comedy. He was just as likely to be found building LEGO amusement parks as quoting the Holy Grail with his close friends. During his high school years, he composed music in FL Studio, consumed too much Adult Swim, and made abstract jokes with friends. (He even won a limo ride in 8th grade and dressed up for it, becoming an accidental pubescent Willy Wonka). Ben originally applied to college for music composition and was rejected everywhere!

Ben then applied as a psychology major to Indiana University-Bloomington. His goal was to obtain a “Job”. He had some interest in science, but didn’t realize it could be a career until Eric Knox chatted with him about graduate school. Soon after, Ben switched to Biology and Neuroscience, and took Integrated Physiology with Whitney Schlegel and became a teaching assist for the class.

Ben didn’t know what to do next, so he started a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology also at IU-Bloomington to get into more debt. This started his his love for applied statistics and coding, specifically utilizing SAS, SPSS, and HLM.

After his Masters degree, Ben still didn’t know what to do, but he did see friends and family grow by becoming AmeriCorps members. Ben completed AmeriCorps year as a Wilderness Therapy Counselor at Pfeifer Camp in Little Rock, Arkansas and another as a Nutrition Educator at the Winnebago County Health Department in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. During these years, Ben visited Madison, Wisconsin a few times and knew he had to live there. At the last second, he applied to become a personal chef with Chefs for Seniors. Eventually, he knew he should return to graduate school originally for population health, but with a convenient click of a check box, also applied for nutrition.

Ben decided to pursue Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (good thing because he was rejected from Population Health there, which was first intention). He quickly became involved with the community on campus working with Catalysts for Science Policy, and off campus by becoming a council member of the the Madison Food Policy Council. In January, 2020, Ben took “Improv for Scientists” with Amy Zelenski, which taught him how roll with chaos. COVID put that to task a few months later. Living by himself, Ben wrote comedy and created characters to cope. Using his humor, science knowledge, and high school audio skills, he launched the “Deeper Than Data” podcast in February, 2021. He kept up the podcast and accidental business past his PhD graduation in May, 2022.

Ben was fortunate to have a cool boss and mentor, Adam Kuchnia. Post PhD graduating, Ben worked as a scientist in Adam’s lab for a few months, including 2 months working remotely in New Zealand. A bit of work and mostly holiday made Ben a happy boy. He hiked mountains, met many lovely Kiwis (mostly in human form), saw glow worms, volcanos, dolphins, and even kea in Milford Sound! The trip was legendary. Ben return to the states for a bit crashing on friends’ couches, traveled to Las Vegas for the 30th anniversary of Magic the Gathering, and then headed to France and Spain (less Kiwis). All this time, Ben reflected on how much he loved the intersection of humor and science.

At the crack of dawn, sitting in the passenger seat of a camper van looking at Abel Tasman National Park in NZ, Ben interviewed with Claudia Solis-Lemus about a post-doctoral researcher position. The two agreed to work together starting in January, 2023. Ben worked with Claudia and split some time working with John Garrett at UW-Madison. Ben’s worked focused on creating an educational website in data science and statistics, analyzing AI-based CT tissue analysis, and developing AI-applications for scientists. Ben brought his humor skills to science creating the “Science and Humor” workshop and by becoming the instructor of the “Improv for Scientists” class he once took. His whole goal for 2023 was to pursue improv and comedy more, which he did by performing stand-up, storytelling, and improv around the community. What will 2024 have in instore? Pretend astronaut?