Brion Benninger, MD, MSc, is Professor of Anatomy and Vice Chair of the Departments of Clinical and Anatomical Sciences at Western University of Health Sciences in Portland, Oregon. He is a faculty member in the Department of Surgery, Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Department of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery and Department of Integrative Biosciences within the schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Physician Assistants at Oregon Health and Science University. Dr. Benninger is also a member of the Samaritan Orthopaedic Residency Faculty. He is a co-author of Gray’s Clinical Photographic Dissector of the Human Body.

Dr. Benninger entered medical school at Leicester University in England with degrees in chemistry and exercise physiology. His residency training included emergency medicine and orthopaedics. He became a staff physician and lecturer of anatomy at Guy’s Hospital in London, and he then received a graduate degree in sports medicine from the University of Nottingham. He is certified in general surgery and clinical anatomy (Guy’s Hospital, London).

With his training in sports medicine, Dr. Benninger became a physician to both professional and amateur athletes and was a member of the British Olympic Team of Physicians. He is also a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and is currently a Councilor-at-Large for the American Association of Clinical Anatomists. In his work at Oregon Health and Science University, Dr. Benninger is responsible for teaching clinical anatomy to surgical residents, medical, dental, physician assistant students and undergraduate students. He developed and leads the Clinical Anatomy Research Society.

In addition to his academic and clinical work, Dr. Benninger has performed more than 20 public large shark dissections; as he works, he teaches hundreds of observers about how knowledge of shark anatomy can be used to help humans, particularly regarding the 11th cranial nerve and its target muscles. Specimens from Dr. Benninger’s dissections have been sent to researchers throughout the world for further study.

Related Author: Marios Loukas, MD, PhD