Walter Bender is technologist and researcher who has made important contributions in the field of electronic publishing, media, and technology for learning. Bender is on leave as a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab which he led as executive director between 2000 and 2006. A founding member of the Media Laboratory, throughout his career Bender has engaged in the study of new information technologies, particularly those that affect people directly. Much of the research addresses the idea of building upon the interactive styles associated with existing media and extending them into domains where a computer is incorporated into the interaction. More recently, Bender served as president of One Laptop per Child for Software and Content where he coordinated the development of software and content including the award-winning Sugar interface for the XO-1 Children's Machine computer. After leaving OLPC in 2008, Bender founded Sugar Labs to continue development of Sugar.