Alexander Demkov received his Ph.D. in Physics at Arizona State University in 1995 secializing in electronic structure theory. His postdoctoral research was focused on electronic properties of zeolites. Het joined Motorola R&D in 1997, and has been working on materials problems of advanced CMOS gate stack, and quantum transport. He has authored over 60 papers, and has two issued patents. He has organized several national and international meetings, serves as an associate editor ofg the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, and is a member of the ITRS working group on Emerging Research Materials. He is adjunct professor of Physics at Arizona State University.

Alexandra Navrotsky was educated at the Bronx High School of Science and the University of Chicago (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in physical chemistry). After postdoctoral work in Germany and at Penn State University, she joined the faculty in Chemistry at Arizona State University, where she remained till her move to the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton University in 1985. She chaired that department from 1988 to 1991 and has been active in the Princeton Materials Institute. On July 1, 1997, she became an interdisciplinary professor of Ceramic, Earth and Environmental Materials Chemistry at the University of California at Davis and is now Edward Roessler Chair in Mathematical and Physical Sciences. She directs the NEAT (Nanomaterials in the Environment, Agriculture and Technology) activities at Davis, including a faculty hiring initiative, an NSF-IGERT, and a new Organized Research Unit.