Dirk M. Guldi completed both his undergraduate studies (1988) and PhD (1990) at the University of Cologne (Germany). Following postdoctoral appointments at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA), the Hahn-Meitner Institute Berlin (1992), and Syracuse University, he joined the faculty of the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory in 1995.
He was promoted a year later from assistant to associate professional specialist, and remained affiliated to Notre Dame until 2004. Since 2004, he is Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen. His research interests focus on the fundamental structural and electronic requirements for ultrafast charge transport and optical gating in carbon nanostructure arrays of donor-acceptor ensembles and in nanostructured thin films to address issues that correspond to the optimization and fine-tuning of dynamics and/or efficiencies of solar energy conversion.

Nazario Martin is full professor of Organic Chemistry at the University Complutense of Madrid. His research interests span a range of targets with emphasis on the chemistry of carbon nanostructures involving fullerenes and carbon nanotubes, pi-conjugated systems as molecular wires, and Electroactive molecules, in the context of electron transfer processes, photovoltaic applications and nanoscience. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Chemical Communications, and the Regional Editor for Europe of the journal Fullerenes, Nanotubes and Carbon Nanostructures. He has received the DuPont Award for Science in 2007. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry, vice-director of IMDEA - Nanoscience Institute, and the President of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry.