Sam Segal (1933-2018) studied biology and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, where he established and led his own research group at the Department of Botanical Ecology. He later specialized in still life paintings and lectured at the VU Amsterdam, as well as curating exhibitions in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the United States. He donated his comprehensive photographic archive with over ninety thousand images relating to still life painting to the RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague. Segal published more than one hundred art historical publications, including many exhibition catalogues, and was widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on still lifes. His original contributions remain essential reading for all those interested in the field of Dutch and Flemish still life painting. For a more complete overview see samsegal.nl.

Klara Alen (b. 1988) is an independent scholar and archival researcher at Still Life Studies. She has a Ph.D. in art history (KU Leuven) and a master's degree in art market studies (VU Amsterdam). Alen has published papers and given lectures on the early development of still life painting in the Northern and Southern Netherlands, women artists and the social and entrepreneurial strategies of early modern artists and art dealers. She is writing a book about Dutch, Flemish, English, French and German prints of flower pieces during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (working together with Sam Segal before he sadly passed away) and a monograph on the early Antwerp flower and laid table painter Osias Beert.