[1] Bender achieved initial prominence in the sciences for his work on perturbative and nonperturbative methods in quantum field theory.
At the turn of the millennium, Bender discovered the importance of parity-time (PT) symmetry in non-Hermitian quantum systems.
[5] In a remarkable coincidence, Alfred's first cousin, Abram Bader, taught physics to Richard Feynman at Far Rockaway High School.
in 1964 from Cornell University, where he graduated summa cum laude and with Distinction in All Subjects and was elected to residence in the Telluride House.
[10] Bender obtained a faculty position in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mathematics Department in 1970, where he was assistant and then associate professor.
[12] He also chaired the Arthur Holly Compton Fellowship in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics selection committee, which distributes over $1.2 million in scholarships to prospective undergraduates each year.
He made numerous advances on these topics, including the elucidation of divergences due to Bender-Wu singularities, the development of novel perturbative and nonperturbative techniques, and pioneering the use of the delta expansion.
[16] In 1998, he and his graduate student Stefan Boettcher discovered the importance of parity-time (PT) symmetry in non-Hermitian quantum theory, which led to advances in many applied disciplines.
[18] In 2007 Professor Bender held the Ulam Fellowship at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory.