Eric Allender’s day

is unfolding at Simons institute (and tomorrow is Valentine’s day, joke by Rahul).  The speakers are praising Eric’s many contributions to the field, so I thought I’d add my praise, since over the years I interacted with Eric in many different capacities, excluding coauthor, but there’s time to fix that, Eric.  I met him the first time 20 years ago in Denmark.  I had already read some of his surveys, and I remember being somewhat surprised that the mental image I had subconsciously created of him didn’t match the way he looked.  Turns out even he was expecting something different from the emails we had exchanged — pictures weren’t online back then.  Anyway, back to more scientific matters, I told him that his surveys were one of the first things I read, and I think he said it was good that they had had an effect.

Indeed, they have, his works and surveys have had a significant impact on my research.  Especially his surveys on low-level complexity classes, a topic dear to my heart.  Counting hierarchies, arithmetic circuits, and the division breakthroughs are some of the many things his surveys exposed me to.  Eric has a unique angle about these topics, and I often go back to his surveys and papers for knowledge and inspiration.  More in line with the topic of the workshop, people are emphasizing how Eric anticipated recent trends, such as “meta complexity,” before they were a thing.  Way to go.