Gerhard Gompper studied Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen, where he received his Physics Diploma and Ph.D. in Physics in the group of Herbert Wagner. After a postdoctoral stay with Michael Schick at the University of Washington in Seattle, he returned to Munich to earn his habilitation. An assignment as a staff scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute for Colloid- and Interface Science in Berlin-Teltow from 1994 to 1999 preceded his joint appointment as a director at the Institute for Solid-State Physics at the Research Center Juelich and as a full professor at the University of Cologne. He was recently honored with the Erwin-Schroedinger-Award for interdisciplinary research on the efficiency-boosting effect of amphiphilic polymers in microemulsions.

Michael Schick obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at Stanford University under Felix Bloch. After a post-doctoral position with Paul Zilsel at Case Western Reserve University, he joined the faculty of the University of Washington in 1969. His interests have included phase transitions in lower dimensional systems, wetting phenomena, microemulsions, the phase behavior of block copolymers and of lipids, and the fusion of biological membranes. He has been honored with Fellowship in the American Physical Society, and a Humboldt Foundation Research Award spent at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen where he worked with Gerhard Gompper. He is married to the scholar of Norwegian Literature, Katherine Hanson, with whom he lives on their floating home in Seattle's Portage Bay. He is an avid, amateur cellist.