Eric Brewer received his M.S. and Ph.D. in EECS from MIT, and a B.S. in EECS from UC Berkeley. He was named a "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, by the Industry Standard as the "most influential person on the architecture of the Internet" by InfoWorld as one of their top ten innovators, by Technology Review as one of the top 100 most influential people for the 21st century (the "TR100"), and by Forbes as one of their 12 "e-mavericks", for which he appeared on the cover. Dr. Brewer focuses on all aspects of Internet-based systems; including technology, strategy, and government.

As a researcher, he has led projects on scalable servers, search engines, network infrastructure, sensor networks, and security. His current focus is on (high) technology for developing regions, with projects in Cambodia, India, Ghana, Mexico, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (so far), and including communications, health, education, and e-government.