Nilufer Onder received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees both in Computer Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. After getting her B.Sc., she worked at the Computer Center of METU as a Systems Programmer. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999. In the same year, she started as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Michigan Technological University. She lives in Laurium with her husband. They have two grown children.