Dr. Bender uses near-infrared and visible light, high-resolution, high-contrast spectroscopy to directly measure the orbital dynamics and characterize the atmospheric structure of faint binary companions, including giant exoplanets, brown dwarfs, and low-mass stars. He has extensive experience designing and writing algorithms and software for the precision analysis of ground-based spectroscopic data, and has pioneered new techniques for precisely correcting the effects of the Earth's atmosphere on astronomical spectral.

He is serving as Instrument Scientist on two major ground-based spectrographs. The NSF sponsored Habitable-zone Planet Finder Spectrograph will deploy to the 10-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in 2017, where it will search for Earth mass planets around M-dwarf stars. The NASA sponsored NEID Spectrometer will deploy to the 3.5-m WIYN Telescope at Kitt Peak in 2019, where it will search for Earth mass planets around Sun-like stars, and provide vital mission support for the TESS spacecraft.