Vojko Vlachy graduated from the Faculty of Natural Science and Technology at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) as a chemical engineer (BSc, 1970) and obtained his MSc in Physical Chemistry in 1973. He received his PhD from the same University in 1978. All his subsequent professional and scientific activity has been connected with the University of Ljubljana, where he has evolved from assistant professor to a full professor of physical chemistry. During that time, he several times received both national and international prestigious awards: the Highest Slovenian National Award for Science (Zois Award, 1996) and a Fulbright Fellowship (1984–1986). In 2009, he was elected to the European Academy of Science and Arts (Salzburg, Austria). In addition, due to his scientific achievements Vojko Vlachy has been repeatedly invited as a Visiting Professor at prestigious scientific institutions such as the University of California in Davis and Berkeley (1984-1986, USA), University of Regensburg (2006, Germany), University of Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris (2007, 2009, France), and University of California at San Francisco (2006-2011 USA). After a long and fruitful collaboration with scientists from the Institute of Condensed Matter Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Lviv), in 2017 he received the title “Doctor Honoris Causa” from that institution. He has 178 publications with 4965 citations and an h-index of 35 (Scopus, 26 October 2023).

Yurij V. Kalyuzhnyi received his M.Sci. degree from the Faculty of Physics at the State University of Lviv (Ukraine) in 1973, his Ph.D. degree from Odesa State University in 1987, and his D.Sci. degree from the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in 2001. He was a visiting scientist at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City in 1991, at State University of NY, Stony Brook in 1994, and at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1994-1996, and was a visiting professor at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2015 and at Vanderbilt University, Nashville in 2019 and 2022. His research is in the field of the liquid state theory, including theory of electrolyte and polyelectrolyte solutions, colloids, complex fluids, and soft matter.

Barbara Hribar-Lee studied chemistry at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She received her Ph.D. from the same university in 1998. In 2000–2001 she performed postdoctoral research with Ken A. Dill at the University of California, San Francisco. She is currently a professor of physical chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology (FCCT), University of Ljubljana. Her research is in the fields of statistical mechanical theories of water and hydration, partly quenched systems, solutions of (poly)electrolytes, and intermolecular interactions and their role in the stability of protein solutions.

Ken A. Dill is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Physics and Chemistry, Affiliated Distinguished Professor in Applied Math, the Louis and Beatrice Laufer Endowed Chair of Physical and Quantitative Biology, and founding and current Director of the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology at Stony Brook University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a past president of the Biophysical Society. He received the Hans Neurath Award from the Protein Society, the Emily Gray Award from the Biophysical Society, the Max Delbruck Prize from the American Physical Society, and the Sackler International Prize in Biophysics. He studies the physics of protein folding, the statistical mechanics of water, the principles of nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamics in small systems, and the mechanisms and evolution of cells. His work has contributed to the understanding that protein folding occurs on funnel-shaped energy landscapes and that protein structures are largely determined by hydrophobic interactions. With Dr. Ron Zuckermann, he developed peptoids, a new class of polymer materials that have protein-like properties.