William H. Brown is Professor Emeritus at Beloit College, where he was twice named Teacher of the Year. He is also the author of two other college textbooks; Organic Chemistry 3/e published in 2002, and General, Organic, and Biochemistry 7/e coauthored with Fred Bettelheim and Jerry March, published in 2004. he received h is PhD from Columbia University under the direction of Gilbert Stork and did post-doctoral work at California Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona. Twice he was Director of a Beloit College World Affairs Center seminar at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. In 1999, he retired from Beloit College to devote more time to writing and development of educational materials. Although officially retired, he continues to teach Special Topics in Organic Synthesis on a Yearly basis.

 Thomas Poon is Associate professor of Chemistry in the Joint Science Department of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges, three of the five undergraduate institutions that make up the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California. He received his B.S. degree from Fairfield University (CT) and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles under the direction of Christopher S. Foote. Poon was a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Postdoctoral Fellow under Bradford P. Mundy at Colby College (ME) before joining the faculty at Randolph-Macon College (VA) where he received the Thomas Branch Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1999. He was visiting scholar at Columbia University (NY) in 2002 (and again in 2004) where he worked on projects in both research and education with his friend and mentor, Nicholas J. Turro. His teaching duties include organic chemistry, forensic chemistry, and upper level courses in photochemistry and advanced laboratory techniques. his favorite activity is working alongside undergraduates in the laboratory on research problems involving the investigation of synthetic methodology in zeolites, zeolite photochemistry, and reactions of singlet oxygen.