Knud H. Nierhaus studied medicine and completed his thesis with Prof. Klaus Betke in Tübingen (Germany). In 1968 he joined the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik in Berlin, where he currently leads a research group studying different aspects of translation. He is "außerplanmäßiger Professor" at the TU, Berlin and "adjunct Professor" at the Moscow State University. His main achievements include the development of a method to reconstitute the large subunit from E. coli ribosomes from its isolated components and the detection of a third tRNA binding site, the E site, on the ribosome.

Daniel N. Wilson studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Victoria University, Wellington (New Zealand). He carried out his PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Warren Tate in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Otago, Dunedin. In his thesis he focused on the mechanisms of translational termination and recoding events. Following completion of his studies in 1999, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship and currently works on the crystallography of ribosomes at the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik in Berlin.