Born in Germany in 1966, Jens Christoffers received his diploma from the University of Marburg, Germany in 1992, before moving to Bonn, Germany, where he completed his doctorate in 1994 on Fischer carbene complexes and Pauson-Khand reactions. He became involved with zirconocene catalysis during a post doctorate under Professor R. G. Bergman in Berkeley, USA, and in 1996 started his independent career at the Technical University Berlin, Germany, gaining his lecturing qualification under Professor S. Blechert in 2000. He has been Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, since 2001. Professor Christoffers's current research interests are in the fields of asymmetric catalysis, synthesis of heterocyclic compounds and catalytic oxidation reactions utilizing molecular oxygen.

Angelika Baro studied chemistry at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, where she received her PhD degree in Clinical Biochemistry in 1987 under the supervision of Professor H. D. Söling. Since 1991 she has been a scientific staff member at the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart.