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Kurt D Benkstein (Fed)
Group Leader (acting)
Kurt D. Benkstein earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1995 from Iowa State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry (Inorganic) from Northwestern University in 1996 and 2000, respectively. His thesis research involved the synthesis, characterization and evaluation of luminescent inorganic cyclophanes for small-molecule detection and separations. He went to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2000 as a postdoctoral researcher to study the relation between film morphology and electron transport in dye-sensitized nanoparticle solar cells. In 2003, Dr. Benkstein joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a Research Chemist to study nanostructured materials for chemiresistive gas sensors. He earned a Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award in 2006 and a NIST Bronze Medal Award in 2017 for his contributions. He is currently the Acting Group Leader for the Bioprocess Measurements Group. His research interests include the study of particle detection, counting, and characterization approaches, particularly for fluorescent and sub-micrometer-scale particles in aqueous environments.