[1] She began a study of the metal nutrition of Aspergillus niger for her thesis, but stopped after being invited by Joseph Gardner Hopkins to join his staff as an Assistant in Dermatology in the diagnostic laboratory in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York (now Columbia Medical School).
[2] Here, she began to study pathogenic fungi, and published her renown thesis: "Certain Monilias Parasitic on Man, their Identification by Morphology and by Agglutination," for her Ph.D. in Botany in 1931.
[1] With the support of a substantial grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and recruiters like Hopkins and Dodge, her laboratory successfully nurtured many young scholars who later became prominent medical mycologists, including: Beatrice M. Kesten, Chester W. Emmons, Mary E. Hopper, Arturo L. Carrion, Edward De Lamater, Otis Jillson, V. Medd Henington, Lucille Georg, Floriante Bocobo, Roland Riddell, Jose Miranda, Milton Huppert, and Edith Schnall.
[1] Her health declined again in the summer of 1955 and she was unable to return to the laboratory, forcing her to retire prematurely as Associate Professor in the Department of Dermatology at Columbia.
She was primarily a taxonomist, and incorporated both morphology and biochemical behavior, including nutrition, antigenic resemblances, and virulence, in her studies and publications.
Her thesis work Certain Monilias Parasitic on Man, their Identification by Morphology and by Agglutination was first in the application of immunologic principles as a taxonomic tool in the study of pathogenic fungi, and is regarded as a classic.
For studying their microscopic morphology, she advocated corn meal infusion agar, a culture medium that, when produced according to her method, remains unrivaled for the rapid induction of the diagnostic chlamydospores of C.
Her works on Phoma condiogena, Sporotrichum schenkii, Pityrosporum ovale, Allescheria boydii, the genus Beauveria, and the dermatophytes, demonstrate her wide range of fungal interests and scope of knowledge.
Some of her tree photographs, which were enlarged from black and white negatives, received honorable mention in the Medical Center Personnel's yearly art exhibits.
Through her photography, she has left behind a legacy of photos illustrating patients, fungal cultures (both gross and microscopic), and histologic sections from infected tissues, exhibiting both deep and superficial mycoses.
[1] Rhoda Williams Benham's many associates, students, and fellow mycologists throughout the world recognize her significant contributions to the study of pathogenic fungi.
As a co-founder of the first laboratory for medical mycology research and teaching in the United States with the late Joseph Gardner Hopkins, she is considered a true pioneer in the field.