Bennett's research interests cover thermal materials processing, with an emphasis on the fundamental understanding of associated transport phenomena. Current research includes laser texturing of substrate materials used for the manufacture of computer disk drives; short pulsed laser engineering of surfaces using thermally driven capillary and microstructural forces; development of a laser based system for optical fiber bonding to vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs); thermal transport across the head-disk air bearing, and occurrence of thermal asperities in computer disk read-back signals; thermal accommodation measurements of energy transport occurring in molecular-surface interactions; the study of superthermal vaporization kinetics in pulsed-laser heating of metals; and pyrometry applied to thermophysical measurements of thermal barrier coatings.