Bob Pirok obtained his PhD in 2019 in Amsterdam, defending two books of research, with the distinction cum laude and worked before at Shell. He is currently tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam and focuses on the application of chemometrics to analytical chemistry with a special interest in method development and data analysis for multi-dimensional chromatography. Other areas of interest include retention modeling and (reaction) modulation techniques for LC×LC. Pirok is visiting research professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in the group of Prof. Dwight R. Stoll and visiting researcher in the group of Prof. André de Villiers of the Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He has received a number of international recognitions and was featured in the 2021 edition of the Power List by the Analytical Scientist.

Peter J. Schoenmakers is full professor in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam since 2002, after having spent nearly two decades in industry (Philips and Shell). He is also the Education Director of COAST, The Netherlands' public-private-partnership organization on analytical chemistry. As such he has created successful national Analytical-Science honors programs at the BSc and MSc levels. In 2016 he was awarded an ERC Advanced grant for the project STAMP (Separation Technology for A Million Peaks). Recent international awards include the Fritz-Pregl Medal (2018), the CASSS Award (2015), the Csaba Horváth Memorial Award (2015), the John H. Knox Medal of the RSC (Belgium, 2014), the Martin medal of the Chromatographic Society (2011), and the EAS Award for Excellence in Separation Science (2010).