Oliver H. Seeck graduated from the University of Kiel (Germany), studying the structure of thin layers and surfaces. He continued this research as post-doc at the Advanced Photon Source in Chicago. Thereafter, he worked as a scientist at Forschungszentrum Julich, managing a diffraction beamline at DESY, Germany, and became a DESY faculty member in 2005. Until spring 2014, Seeck was responsible for the diffraction beamline P08 at the third-generation synchrotron radiation source PETRA III. He now heads the PETRA III experiments division.

Bridget M. Murphy moved to Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source (CCLRC) in the UK upon completing her master's at Dublin City University in Ireland. Working there as a beamline scientist, she specialized in x-ray scattering techniques. She moved to the University of Kiel to research phase transitions in strongly correlated systems and obtained her PhD in 2004. She continued to develop x-ray methods and investigating structure and dynamics of solid and liquid interfaces. At present, she is a faculty member at the University of Kiel.