Hans-Ulrich Blaser carried out this doctoral research with A. Eschenmoser at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, from which he received the Ph.D. degree in 1971. Between 1971 and 1975 he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Chicago (J. Halpern), Harvard University   (J.A. Osborn), and Monsanto (Zürich). During 20 years at Ciba0Geigy (1976-1996) he gained practical experience at R&D in the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industry, which continued at Novartis (1996-1999) and at Solvias where he presently is chief technology officer. During his industrial career he has developed and implemented numerous catalytic routes for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals both as project leader and section head. His main interests are focused on (enantio) selective catalysis and the integration of catalytic steps into the syntheses of commercial products.

Elke Schmidt carried out her doctoral research with Prof. Christian Wandrey at the Institute for Biotechnology (Nuclear Research Center) in Juelich. She received her Ph.D. degree in 1987 from the Institute for Chemistry of the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelm University, Bonn. During the last 16 years at Ciba-Geigy, Norvatis and Syngenta, she held various positions in R&D, during the last 10 years in Crop Protection Research.
Her main interest is focused on biotransformation, natural products discovery and fermentation development for small molecules and proteins.