Dr. William B. Benjamin is a Professor Emeritus, Physiology and Biophysics, and Medicine State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1934, educated at Columbia College 1951-1955 A.B., and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University 1955-1959. He did his Internship at University of Vermont School of Medicine, MF Hospital, 1959-1960; his Residency at Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC 1961-1962; and Clinical and Research training and Fellowship in Oncology at Columbia University, 1960-1961, 1962-1967.

He was Assistant Professor at College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1967-1968, and at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1968-1976. From 1976-1981 he served as Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at State University of New York School of Medicine, and from 1981-2008 as Professor of Physiology and Biophysics and Medicine. At the SUNY at Stony Brook he was a basic scientist, biochemist, and molecular biologist doing mostly original research in the fields of endocrinology, protein kinases and cell signalling. He was also involved in the training of research fellows and in medical student education mostly in Physiology and Endocrinology. 

Bill and his wife first visited Israel in 1991, after his son Jeremy made aliyah, and thereafter they visited every year. In 1995 they purchased an apartment in Jaffa. Since Bill retired from the university and his wife retired from the practice of law, they are now spending nearly half of each year in Israel. 

In the summers Bill is generally on his sailboat, which he keeps in Maine, where they live when they are not in Jaffa.  Bill is involved in various foreign policy forums in Maine. He does all the cooking for the household and takes care of their Portuguese water dog, Camper, who was, for a while, on the dog show circuit.