Jim Elser is Bierman Professor of Ecology of the University of Montana in the United States and Director of UM's Flathead Lake Biological Station. He also holds a part-time research faculty position in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Trained as a limnologist, Elser is best known for his role in the study of coupling of chemical elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in living systems.

Phil Haygarth is Professor of Soil and Water Science at the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. Trained in geography and soil chemistry, he spent 16 years as a soil scientist at an agricultural research institute (North Wyke, now Rothamsted Research) before he took his professorship at Lancaster. He is known for his studies on phosphorus at the interface of soil and water and how this may be impacted by climate change.