Angela E. Douglas is Daljit S. and Elaine Sarkaria Professor of Insect Physiology and Toxicology at Cornell University, New York. Her research and teaching is motivated by the mechanisms underlying insect function and her core research interests are the overlapping topics of insect nutrition and interactions between insects and beneficial microorganisms. She is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America.

Stephen J. Simpson is ARC Laureate Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences and Academic Director of the Perkins Centre for the study of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease at the University of Sydney. His core research aims are to understand swarming in locusts and to devise a new framework for studying nutrition. In 2012 he was awarded the Wigglesworth Medal from the Royal Entomological Society of London.