Douglas I. Benn is currently Professor of Glaciology at the University Centre in Svalbard, and has a part-time position at the University of St Andrews. His PhD was on the Younger Dryas glaciation of the Isle of Skye, Scotland (St Andrews, 1990), and he has subsequently conducted research into glacial geomorphology and sedimentology in Scandinavia, South and North America, and the Himalaya. More recently, his research has focused mainly on glaciological processes, including the mass balance of debris-covered glaciers, calving, glacier surges, and direct exploration of englacial and subglacial drainage systems

David J.A. Evans is a glacial geomorphologist and Quaternary scientist who gained a Geography BA at the University of Wales (Lampeter) in 1982, an MSc at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada in 1984 and a PhD at the University of Alberta, Canada in 1988. He has undertaken research on glaciers and glaciation in Arctic Canada, Iceland, Norway, the Canadian prairies, Svalbard, South Georgia, New Zealand, Labrador, the Himalayas, Ireland and Britain. After 14 years at the University of Glasgow he exchanged his drumlinized surroundings at Loch Lomond for the meltwater channels of upper Teesdale in the Pennines of northern England and is presently a Reader in Geography at the University of Durham.