Professor Bennett was appointed as the first Professor of Palliative Medicine at Lancaster University in October 2007. He previously worked as Consultant and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Palliative Medicine at St Gemma's Hospice in Leeds since 1997. He completed an MD in 1999 resulting in the LANSS Pain Scale, an internationally used tool for identifying neuropathic pain. From 2003 he established and directed the Leeds Pallium Research Group and has published widely on a number of pain and palliative care topics. He is chair of the National Cancer Research Institute palliative care clinical studies group and chairs the host committee for the EAPC 2010 Research Forum. In 2006, he was invited as Visiting Professor to MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston USA. His main research interests relate to cancer pain, neuropathic pain and psychological distress.