Dr. Ruth Benca received her undergraduate education at Harvard University and her MD degree and a PhD in Pathology from the University of Chicago. She completed a residency in Psychiatry and a fellowship in Sleep Medicine, also at the University of Chicago. She was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago from 1985-1993 until her move to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993, where she was promoted to Professor in 1998 and served as Associate Chair of the Psychiatry Department from 1995-2006 and founding Director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research from 2006-2016, a unique facility, dedicated to the development of translational research in sleep medicine. She also served as medical director for Wisconsin Sleep, where she treated patients with a broad range of sleep disorders. She was recruited to UCI as Chair of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in 2016 and has built a comprehensive sleep medicine center at UCI, dedicated to providing outstanding clinical care for sleep disorders throughout the region as well as developing a world-class translational research program.