Eric Allender is a well-known researcher in the field of computational complexity, and has given numerous plenary addresses internationally at symposia on theoretical computer science.  He received a B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1979, majoring in Computer Science and Theatre, and a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 1985.  He has been at Rutgers University since then, serving as department chair from 2006 to 2009.  He is a Fellow of the ACM, and serves on the editorial boards of ACM Transactions on Computation Theory, Computational Complexity, and The Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science.  He has chaired the Conference Committee for the annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, and he serves on the Scientific Board for the Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (ECCC).