Benden elected as senior member of National Academy of Inventors

Mark E. Benden, PhD, CPE, was one of six Texas A&M University professors elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) inaugural class of NAI Senior Members. Benden is an associate professor and department head for the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. He also serves as director of the Ergonomics Center.

NAI Senior Members are active faculty, scientists and administrators from NAI member institutions with success in patents, licensing and commercialization. They have produced technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society.

Benden is the chief executive officer of two faculty-led startups, PositiveMotion LLC and Stand2Learn LLC, and has licensed five different products to four different companies since becoming a faculty member. His research interests are office worker obesity, classroom ergonomics and childhood obesity, medical device development and sedentary behavior intervention as they relate to healthy living, preventable diseases, ergonomics and workplace health.

Benden’s career includes experience as an officer in the United States Army Reserve, inventor, rehabilitation engineer, ergonomics consultant, plant and corporate ergonomics engineer for Johnson & Johnson, and executive vice president for Neutral Posture. His 25-year career in occupational safety and ergonomics has produced multiple processes, tools and devices to ease injury and illness risk. Benden holds 21 United States patents with several more pending. The expected lifetime economic impact of his designs exceeds $1 billion.

Benden received his Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering, Master of Science in industrial engineering and doctorate in interdisciplinary engineering, all from Texas A&M University. He is a Certified Professional Ergonomist (#706).

He has authored many articles, books and book chapters on ergonomics and has lectured for multiple professional groups throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The inaugural class of NAI Senior Members represents 37 research universities and research institutes. Their names appear on more than 1,100 issued U.S. patents. The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with more than 4,000 individual inventor members and fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide.

It was founded in 2010 at the University of South Florida to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.