Jim Best holds the Jack and Richard Threet Chair in Sedimentary Geology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and has research interests in process sedimentology and the dynamics of alluvial, lacustrine, deltaic and deep-sea environments. His work concerns experimental research and field studies in both modern and ancient environments, including fieldwork in Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, Cambodia, Chile, New Zealand and the UK.

Paul Wignall is Professor of palaeoenvironments at the University of Leeds, UK, and his principal research interests lie in the origin and characteristics of mass extinction events in the geological record. He has also pioneered research in mudrocks and palaeoenvironmental change in ancient oceans, and has conducted field work across the globe, including Canada, China, Greenland, Svalbard, Poland, Tibet, USA and the UK.

Jim Best and Paul Wignall have also led student, academic and industrial field trips to, as well as conducted research in, the Shannon Basin of Western Ireland for over 25 years.