William N. Bennett Resume

Over the past 40 years of creating art, primarily as a hobby, I used my mindset as a scientist as a source of inspiration.  The following outlines my life experience and career in science.  I retired as a Toxicologist in 2020.  

Over thirty years experience in Forensic and Clinical Toxicology as a Laboratory Technologist, Supervisor, Assistant Director, Alternate-Responsible Person (Alt-RP), Co-Responsible Person (Co-RP)/Technical Director, Responsible Person and CLIA Lab Director.  The work primary focused on high volume analysis of Drugs of Abuse in urine using Mass Spectrometry analyses. 

Six years experience as a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant at the Center For Great Lakes Studies (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee) Aquatic Ecology Laboratory which emphasized toxicological research of heavy metals.  

Skills:  Familiarity with DHHS/DOT protocols, CAP protocols and forensic analysis; experience with: GC/MS and LC/MS/MS maintenance/analysis of drugs, EIA (Hitachi 717,747), HPLC and TLC, Culturing of plant and animal populations, knowledge of computers (PC) including hardware interfacing and programming (BASIC, Pascal, Hewlett Packard RPN, ProComm Script, SQL), use of radioisotopes, image analysis, and Atomic Absorption analysis of heavy metals.


EXPERIENCE:

1989 to 2020: Forensic and Clinical Toxicology (Retired)

  • Experience as a lab technologist dealing with the analysis of Drugs of Abuse and therapeutic drugs.
  • Developed computer programs to automate the GC/MS analysis of drugs and to assist in data reduction and QC monitoring.    
  • Experience as a lab Supervisor.
  • Experience as a Certifying Scientist for DHHS/DOT protocols as well as CAP Forensic Drug Testing protocols.
  • Development of a custom computer program for record handling of forensic samples designed to meet DHHS requirements.
  • CLIA Lab Director for a Pain Management group.
  • Currently retired from toxicology.


1982 to 1989: Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant   UW-Milwaukee

  • Performed research directly related to M.S and Ph.D. theses.
  • Developed computer assisted plant and animal continuous culture systems, which included chemostats and turbidostats.
  • Developed software (Pascal) for process control of culture systems and data reduction.
  • Evaluated heavy metal (Cd, Zn, Se, Mn) toxicity to aquatic algae using these systems.
  • Investigated the interactions of metals with regard to toxicity.
  • Studied uptake and transfer of Selenium between aquatic algae and zooplankton.
  • Measured biochemical speciation of Selenium in aquatic ecosystems, i.e., incorporation into Selenomethionine.
  • Isolated a fast growing rotifer strain using turbidostat culture which was applicable to the aquaculture industry.
  • Investigated food chain transfer of Selenium between medium, algae, zooplankton and fish larvae using radioisotope tracer studies (Masters Thesis research).
  • Instructed introductory level biology laboratories.


EDUCATION:

University of Wisconsin   Milwaukee, Wisconsin

       Ph.D. Degree   Biological Sciences, May 1989
       M.S. Degree   Zoology, 1984

University of Miami   Miami, Florida

       B.S. Degree (magna cum laude)   Marine Science, 1981
       B.S. Degree (magna cum laude)   Biology, 1981

East Kentwood High School   Kentwood, Michigan

       College Preparatory (Graduated with Honors), 1977


CERTIFICATIONS:

American Board of Forensic Toxicology - Diplomate - Forensic Drug (D-ABFT)

National Registry of Certified Chemists - Toxicological Technologist (NRCC-TT)

 

PUBLICATIONS:


Bennett, W.N. 1984. Examination of selenium kinetics and transfer within a defined aquatic food chain. M.S. Thesis, Dept. of Zoology, Univ. of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 61 pp.

Bennett, W.N. 1988. Assessment of selenium toxicity in algae using turbidostat culture. Water Research 22: 939-942.

Bennett, W.N. 1989. The use of Turbidostat Culture in Investigations of Algal Heavy Metal Toxicity and Rotifer Population Dynamics.  Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Great Lakes Studies, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 180 pp.

Bennett, W.N. 1990. Measurement of manganese amelioration of cadmium toxicity in Chlorella pyrenoidosa using turbidostat culture. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 19: 118 -123.

Bennett, W.N. and M.E. Boraas. 1988. Isolation of a fast-growing strain of therotifer Brachionus calyciflorus Pallas using turbidostat culture. Aquaculture 73: 27-36.

Bennett, W.N. and M.E. Boraas. 1989. An experimental test of the egg ratio method using instantaneous birth rate as an independent variable. Limnology and Oceanography  34: 1120-1125.

Bennett, W.N. and M.E. Boraas. 1989. A demographic profile of the fastest growing metazoan: a strain of Brachionus calyciflorus Pallas (Rotifera). Oikos.  55: 365- 369.

Bennett, W.N. and M.E. Boraas. 1989. Comparison of population dynamics between slow-  and fast-growing strains of the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus Pallas in continuous culture.  Oecologia  81: 494-500.

Bennett, W.N. and M.E. Boraas. 1993. Rotifer Culture in the Turbidostat. In: Plankton Regulation Dynamics: Experiments and Models in Rotifer Continuous Cultures. N. Walz (ed.) Springer Verlag.  pp. 30-38.

Bennett, W.N., M.E. Boraas and D.B Seale. 1993. Turbidosat Culture of Brachionus calyciflorus: An Experimental System to Assess Biological Limits on Population Growth. In: Plankton Regulation Dynamics: Experiments and Models in Rotifer Continuous Cultures. N. Walz (ed.) Springer Verlag.  pp. 77-86.

Bennett, W.N. and A.S. Brooks. 1989. Measurement of zinc amelioration of cadmium toxicity in Chlorella pyrenoidosa using turbidostat culture. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry  8: 877-882.

Bennett, W.N., A.S. Brooks and M.E. Boraas. 1986. Selenium uptake and transfer in an aquatic food chain. Archives of Environmental
Contamination and Toxicology. 15: 513-517.

Boraas, M.E. and W.N. Bennett. 1988. Steady state rotifer growth in a two-stage, computer controlled turbidostat. Journal of Plankton Research.10: 1023-1038.

Brooks, A.S., P.E. Bertram, D.C. Szmania, W.N. Bennett, K.W. Boyum, D.B. Seale and M.E. Boraas. 1984. The effects of selenium on the reproductive potential of the fathead minnow. Final Report. Research Project 1631-1. Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA.

Kleinow, K.M., A.S. Brooks and W.N. Bennett. 1988. The biochemical speciation of selenium compounds in aquatic organisms. Final Report. Carolina Power & Light Co., New Hill, NC.

Wu, A., J. Schmalz and W.N. Bennett.  1994.  Identification of UrinAid adulterated urine specimens by fluorometric analysis. Clinical Chemistry. 40: 845-846.

Wu, A., Bennett, W.N., Eigenfeld, M., Berry, B., Gozdowiak, A., Wallace, G., Bodemer, G., Goldbach, C., Holford, M., Davids, S., Bretl, D.D. and Musich, J.K.  1998.  Nitrite Contamination in Urine Collection Kit Component - Absorbent Sheet. Journal of Analalytical Toxicology. 22: 401- 402.

 

ABSTRACTS:

Bennett, W.N. and M.E. Boraas. 1987. A turbidostat culture system for studying rotifer population dynamics. Abstract, Annual Meeting of the American  Society of Limnology and Oceanography.

Bennett, W.N., A.S. Brooks and M.E. Boraas. 1985. A water algae rotifer larval fish culture system for use in larval fish toxicity studies. Abstract, Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference.

Bennett, W.N., K.M. Kleinow, and A.S. Brooks. 1987. Biochemical speciation of selenium in aquatic organisms. Abstract, Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Bennett, W.N. and A. Wu. 1995.  A custom computer program that automatically tracks GC/MS quality control data on Hewlett Packard Unix Chemstation GC/MS systems.  Society of Forensic Toxicologists.  25th National Meeting. October 9 14, 1995, Abstract Number 55.

Bennett, W.N., A. Wu, D.D. Bretl and J.K. Musich. 1997.  Description of a Hewlett Packard Chemstation based drug quantitation program and its conversion from Unix to MS.  Abstract submitted for poster session at the National Meeting of The American Association of Clinical Chemistry, Atlanta, GA.  July 20 24, 1997.

Bennett, W.N., D.D. Bretl, J.K. Musich and A. Wu. 1997.  A PC based computer program to handle records of DHHS/DOT mandated specimens.Abstract submitted for poster session at the National Meeting of Society of Forensic Toxicology, Salt Lake, UT, October 12 16, 1997.

Bennett, W.N. and A. Wu. 2004.  Automated approach to Non-Negative Specimen List (NNSL) production and application for SAMHSA-certified laboratories.  Abstract submitted for poster session at the National Meeting of Society of Forensic Toxicology and the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, Washington, DC, August 28 - September 3, 2004.