Shigeji Fujita was awarded his Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1960. He subsequently worked as a research assistant and assistant professor at various Japanese and American universities and held visiting appointments at universities around the world. In 1968, he was appointed to a professorship at the Department of Physics of the State University of New York at Buffalo, which is where he still teaches. Professor Fujita conducts research in several areas, among others in equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, the Kinetic Theory of plasmas, gases, liquids and solids, and the Quantum Hall Effect. He has published over 200 articles and eleven books. Akira Suzuki received his Ph.

D. in physics from the University of Reading, UK, in 1982. He subsequently worked as a research associate at Purdue University, USA. In 1985 he joined the Canon Inc. Research Center as a chief scientist. In 1993 he was appointed as an associate professor at the Department of Physics, Tokyo University of Science and was promoted to a full professor in 1999. Professor Suzuki's research interests include nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, applications of thermofield dynamics to open quantum systems, and condensed matter physics (transport theory for graphene and carbon nanotubes among others). He has published over 70 papers and seven books (translations and two books including a book, Foundation of Statistical Thermodynamics).