Professor Benson’s primary research interests are in the areas of carbonate depositional systems and diagenesis. He and his students are studying the depositional setting of lower Paleozoic (Cambrian-Ordovician) carbonates in the Alabama Appalachians, cyclicity in Mississippian carbonates in the southern Appalachians, and the depositional setting and history of the Jurassic Smackover Formation in Alabama. In the area of carbonate diagenesis, he is investigating diagenesis in the Smackover Formation, particularly as it relates to reservoir development and quality. He is also studying reservoir heterogeneities in the Smackover to identify the influence they have on primary and secondary recovery of hydrocarbons.