Eric Plutzer is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Penn State.  He earned is Ph.D. in sociology from Washington University in St. Louis working with John Zipp, and completed a post-doc at Indiana University working with George Bohrnstedt, David Heise, Peggy Thoits and Sheldon Stryker.

He taught at Iowa State University prior to coming to Penn State.  He has also been a guest professor at Universiti Malaya (Kuala Lumpur) and a guest scholar at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB).  In the spring of 2020, he will be a guest scholar at the Autralian National University.

His research areas include  voter turnout and civic engagement, public opinion, social and education policy, political polarization, and the politics of family, gender, and reproduction.  His research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Templeton Foundation, and the National Center for Science Education.

He is currently the co-editor in chief of Public Opinion Quarterly, and has previously served as associate editor for POQ and Gender & Politics; he also sits on the editorial boards of Social Science Quarterly, and the Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society.