Maureen M. Julian earned an AB from Hunter College, New York City, with a double major in physics and mathematics, and a PhD from Cornell University, in physical chemistry, with a thesis in crystallography. She was a research fellow at University College London, with Professor Kathleen Lonsdale. She taught crystallography for 24 years to over a thousand students in the Materials Science Department at Virginia Tech. She resides in Hummelstown, PA and Montauk, NY.

Carla Slebodnick earned a BS in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Northwestern University. She was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan. Since 1998 she has been doing crystallographic research and teaching in the chemistry department at Virginia Tech. She resides in Blacksburg, VA with her husband and two daughters.

Francis T. Julian earned an AB from Cornell University in computer science and an MS from the University of Virginia also in computer science. He is at Oliver Wyman and resides in Princeton Junction, NJ with his wife, daughter, and son.