Reinhard Kramer is chair in Biochemistry at Cologne University, Germany. After studying Biochemistry at the Universities of Tubingen and Munich, he obtained his Ph.D. from LMU Munich. He then spent 10 years at the Research Center Julich (Institute of Biotechnology) and the University of Dusseldorf as an Associate Professor for Biochemistry before taking up his present position at Cologne University. During his scientific career, R. Kramer has focused on different aspects of membrane transport proteins, both in mitochondria and in prokaryotes, as well as on stress response in bacteria, in particular osmotic stress.

Kirsten Jung studied biochemistry and performed her doctoral thesis at the University of Leipzig in 1988. After postdoctoral studies at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, she continued her research at the University of Osnabruck. In 2002 she was appointed as Associate Professor for Microbiology at the Technical University of Darmstadt, and in 2004 she became Full Professor and Chair for Microbiology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich. Research of Kirsten Jung is focused on the molecular mechanisms of stimulus perception by sensor kinases involved in environmental stress response.