Pavel Hrubeš graduated from Charles University in Prague in 2008 with supervisor Pavel Pudlák. After a period of joyful postdocs in U.S. and Canada, he became a mature worker in the factory of academia. He contributes mainly to arithmetic circuit and proof complexity. His hobbies include mountaineering and brooding.

Avi Wigderson was born in Haifa, Israel in 1956, and received his Ph.D. in 1983 at Princeton University under Dick Lipton. He enjoys and is fascinated with studying the power and limits of efficient computation, and the remarkable impact of this field on understanding our world. Avi's other major source of fascination and joy are his three kids, Eyal, Einat, and Yuval, and his granddaughter Tamar.