Bob B. Buchanan
Bob B. Buchanan obtained his Ph.D. in microbiology at Duke University and did postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1963, he joined the Berkeley faculty and is currently a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. He has taught general biology and biochemistry to undergraduate students and graduate-level courses in plant biochemistry and photosynthesis. Initially focused on pathways and regulatory mechanisms in photosynthesis, his research has more recently dealt with the regulation of seed germination. This latter work is finding application in several areas. Buchanan has served as department chair at UC–Berkeley and was president of the American Society of Plant Biologists from 1995 to 1996.

Wilhelm Gruissem
Wilhelm Gruissem was born in Germany, where he studied biology and chemistry and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Marburg and the University of Colorado at Boulder and in 1983 joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley. He chaired the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC–Berkeley from 1993 to 1998 and since 1998 has been director of a collaborative research program between the department and the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute in San Diego. In July 2000, he joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich as professor of plant biotechnology. He has taught general biology and plant molecular biology to undergraduate and graduate students. His research focuses on pathways and molecules involved in plant growth control and regulation of chloroplast development.

Russell L. Jones
Russell Jones was born in Wales and completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Michigan State University–Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory with Anton Lang before being appointed to the faculty of the Department of Botany at the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. He is now a professor of plant biology at UC–Berkeley, where he teaches undergraduate classes in general biology and graduate courses in plant physiology and cell biology. His research focuses on hormonal regulation in plants using the cereal aleurone as a model system, with approaches that exploit the techniques of biochemistry, biophysics, and cell and molecular biology. Jones was president of the American Society of Plant Biologists from 1993 to 1994.