Eric Somers is Professor of Design and Communication at Dutchess Community College of the State University of New York, where he served as Chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts for 15 years.  He began his career as a fine arts television producer which triggered a life long interest in the relationship of sound to image.  He currently specializes in using algorithmic music composition techniques to design sonic environments for theatre, dance, film and art installations.

Professor Somers teaches courses in sound recording, electronic music, photography and digital media production at SUNY Dutchess and runs The Sandbook Studio, which specializes in high definition classical music sound recording, sound design for media, and high end digital photographic services for the fine arts.

Mr. Somers received BA and MA degrees in Radio-TV-Film from Michigan State University with minors in music and mathematical logic and did further graduate study in theatrical design and directing. He also has taken master classes in electro-acoustic composition from Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio. He has served as Chair of the New York section of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), President of the International Community for Auditory Display (ICAD), and Senior Newsletter Editor for the Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the US (SEAMUS). 

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Professor Somers has published and lectured widely throughout the world including master classes at the Juilliard School (NYC), The University of Glasgow (Scotland), University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana),  The Royal Swedish Academy of Music (Stockholm), Georgia Tech (Atlanta), MIT (Boston), The Advanced Telecommunications Research institute (Kyoto, Japan), and many other venues.