Jutta Allmendinger, Prof., Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at the Humboldt University in Berlin and President of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) (Social Science Research Center Berlin). Within NEPS, she is the Coordinator of stage 8 “Adult Education and Lifelong Learning”. She was born in Mannheim, Germany (1956) and received her training in sociology and social psychology at the University of Mannheim (M.A. 1982), the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University (Ph.D. 1989) and the Free University of Berlin (Habilitation 1993). Jutta Allmendinger worked as Researcher at the Center for Survey Research and Methodology (Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen, ZUMA) in Mannheim (1981-83), as Research Assistant at Harvard University and at the Center for Educational Sciences at the University of Wisconsin (1984-88). From 1988 to 1991 she was Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. From 1999-2002 she was Chairperson of the German Society for Sociology (DGS), from 1992 to 2007 she was Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Munich and, from 2003 to 2007, Director of the Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB) in Nürnberg. In the academic year 1991-1992 she was Fellow at the Harvard Business School in Cambridge (Program for Organizational Behavior) and, in the academic year 1996-1997, Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. Jutta Allmendinger holds memberships in the Scientific Commission of the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat), the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW), the expert commission “Research und Innovation” of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina, and in the Foundation Council of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). She is editor in chief of the Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung (ZAF) (Journal for Labour Market Research) and was coeditor of the Journal of European Societies (1998-2001). Jutta Allmendinger has published 11 books and over 140 articles, mostly in refereed journals on social inequality, educational sociology, labor market research, demography, and social stratification.