Uwe Bornscheuer was born in 1964 and studied chemistry at the University of Hannover, Germany, where he graduated with his Diploma in 1990. After receiving his PhD in Chemistry in 1993 at the Institute of Technical Chemistry at the same university, he spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Nagoya, Japan. He then returned to Germany and joined the Institute of Technical Biochemistry at the University of Stuttgart, where he finished his Habilitation in 1998. Since 1999 he has been Professor for Technical Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Greifswald. His main research interest is the application of biocatalysts in the synthesis of optically active compounds and in lipid modification.

Romas Kazlauskas studied chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD) and Harvard University (postdoc with G. M. Whitesides). He worked at General Electric Company (1985-1988) and McGill University,
Montreal, Canada (1988-2003) and is currently an associate professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He is an expert in enzyme selectivity, especially
enantioselectivity. His current work focuses on the design of new enzymatic reactions and the molecular basis of enzyme enantioselectivity.