 In 1972, he obtained his Ph.D. in biology, with Peter Läuger at University of Konstanz as his supervisor; and, in 1977, he obtained his Habilitation in Biophysics.A Heisenberg Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (German Science Foundation), Benz was a visiting professor at State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNYSB) in 1980 and 1982.In 1984, he was a visiting professor at University of British Columbia in Vancouver.