About

Ben May is a professor in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago, holding the Jeffrey Rathmell Chair of Cancer Research and the Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Chair Professor for Cancer Research. His research focuses on the regulation of lymphocyte metabolism, differentiation, and function, particularly exploring how metabolic pathways and nutrient microenvironments influence immune cell fate and activity. His lab investigates mechanisms of metabolic reprogramming during T cell activation, the impact of obesity on cancer immunotherapy, and how inflammatory microenvironments shape immune responses, utilizing genetic and metabolic techniques. Ben May's academic background includes a PhD in Immunology from Stanford University, followed by postdoctoral research in cancer biology and metabolism at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. His work has significantly contributed to understanding T cell immunometabolism, mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis, and the metabolic adaptations of immune cells in various disease contexts. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Fred W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology, the Waddell Walker Hancock Cancer Discovery Scholar, and recognition as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. His research has advanced the understanding of immune cell metabolism and its implications for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Biology
• Combinatorics
• Philosophy
• Political economy
• Business
• Physics
• Mathematics
• Economic history
• Linguistics
• Statistical physics
• Economics
• Law
• Law and economics
• Optics

Selected publications

• Estimating the Economic and Budgetary Effects of Research Investments

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2025-01-01 · 5 citations

  reportOpen access

  Many US federal agencies model the economic and budgetary effects of research and development (R&D) investments -- both public R&D and private R&D -- as if R&D were the same as any other form of investment, such as physical capital investment. However, in recent decades a broad base of evidence has developed suggesting that such modeling may result in projections that are not well-aligned with the actual economic and budgetary effects of R&D investments. In this paper, we attempt to synthesize the economic evidence relevant to estimating the economic and budgetary effects of R&D, and examine how and where this research literature could potentially be incorporated into the standard projections produced by various federal agencies.

  PublisherDOI

• Bottomonium spectral functions in thermal QCD

  Journal of subatomic particles and cosmology. · 2025-04-11

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Estimating the Economic and Budgetary Effects of Research Investments

  Tax Policy and the Economy · 2025-05-01 · 1 citations

  article

  Many US federal agencies model the economic and budgetary effects of research and development (R&D) investments—both public R&D and private R&D—as if R&D were the same as any other form of investment, such as physical capital investment. However, in recent decades, a broad base of evidence has developed suggesting that such modeling may result in projections that are not well aligned with the actual economic and budgetary effects of R&D investments. In this paper, we attempt to synthesize the economic evidence relevant to estimating the economic and budgetary effects of R&D and examine how and where this research literature could potentially be incorporated into the standard projections produced by various federal agencies.

  PublisherDOI

• Estimating the Economic and Budgetary Effects of Research Investments

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Thermal lattice QCD results from the FASTSUM collaboration

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-11-24

  preprintOpen access

  The FASTSUM Collaboration has developed a comprehensive research programme in thermal lattice QCD using 2+1 flavour ensembles. We review our recent hadron spectrum analyses of open charm mesons and charm baryons at non-zero temperature. We also detail our determination of the interquark potential in the bottomonium system using NRQCD quarks. All of our work uses anisotropic lattices where the temporal lattice spacing is considerably finer than the spatial one allowing better resolution of temporal correlation functions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Thermal lattice QCD results from the FASTSUM collaboration

  2024-12-17 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  The FASTSUM Collaboration has developed a comprehensive research programme in thermal lattice QCD using 2+1 flavour ensembles. We review our recent hadron spectrum analyses of open charm mesons and charm baryons at non-zero temperature. We also detail our determination of the interquark potential in the bottomonium system using NRQCD quarks. All of our work uses anisotropic lattices where the temporal lattice spacing is considerably finer than the spatial one allowing better resolution of temporal correlation functions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Who Gets What from Government

  2023 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Business
  PublisherDOI

• The wealthy as a barrier to tax reform

  Oxford Review of Economic Policy · 2023-08-18 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract In the optimal design of tax reform proposals, and in decisions about when and how to recommend them, it is useful to take explicit account of issues of political feasibility. In the United States—and probably around the world—important political barriers work against the enactment of major progressive tax reforms. A close look at US poll and survey data indicates that opposition by the general public is not a significant barrier: large majorities favour progressive taxation in general and favour a number of specific progressive tax changes, including higher top personal income tax rates; higher taxes on corporations; increased taxation of realized capital gains; and taxation of unrealized gains at death. But there exist other serious political barriers against tax reform, including an institutional status quo bias that makes any major policy change (especially any progressive change) very difficult; and strong political opposition from business corporations and wealthy individuals. The best available evidence indicates that nearly all US business firms, and most multi-millionaires and billionaires, oppose practically any sort of progressive tax reform. The best evidence also indicates that these firms and individuals exercise far more influence on policy-making than ordinary citizens do. We mention some possible strategies for dealing with this problem.

  PublisherDOI

• The Implications of Uncertain Economic Paths for Revenue Projections

  National Tax Journal · 2022-11-09

  article

  This paper measures the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty on the accuracy of baseline federal revenue forecasts. We build a simple stochastic model of gross domestic product, stock prices, and employment over time. Using a cloud-based microsimulation model, we simulate individual income and payroll tax revenues for 5,000 realizations of the macroeconomic variables. We find a large amount of uncertainty in revenue projections that grows over time. We find a small downward bias from using a single baseline to predict revenues, but it never exceeds 1 percent of revenues over the 10-year budget horizon.

  PublisherDOI

• Spectral Reconstruction in NRQCD via the Backus-Gilbert Method

  Proceedings of The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory — PoS(LATTICE2021) · 2022-05-16

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We present progress results from the FASTSUM collaboration’s programme to determine the spectrum of the bottomonium system as a function of temperature using a variety of approaches. In this contribution, the Backus-Gilbert method is used to reconstruct spectral functions from NRQCD meson correlator data from FASTSUM’s anisotropic ensembles at nonzero temperature. We focus in particular on the resolving power of the method, providing a demonstration of how the underlying resolution functions can be probed by exploiting the Laplacian nature of the NRQCD kernel. We conclude with estimates of the bottomonium ground state mass and widths at nonzero temperature.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jason Seawright

  Northwestern University

  96 shared

• Matthew J. Lacombe

  Case Western Reserve University

  88 shared

• M. D. Desch

  81 shared

• Rowman Littlefield

  University of Chicago

  81 shared

• Matthew J. A. Green

  University of Nottingham

  81 shared

• Frank Domurad

  Harvard University Press

  81 shared

• John Kincaid

  Lafayette College

  81 shared

• Jack Jedwab

  81 shared

Labs

• Ben May Department of Cancer ResearchPI

Awards & honors

• Fred W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology Cancer R…
• Honorary Member American Society for Clinical Investigator 2…
• Waddell Walker Hancock Cancer Discovery Scholar Vanderbilt U…
• Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher 2022 - 24
• Nature Milestones: Highlighted for discoveries in T cell imm…