Lee Berger is a research professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society. An award-winning researcher, author, and speaker, Berger, in 1997, was the first recipient of the National Geographic Society’s Prize for Research and Exploration. In 2016 he was named the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year, and that same year Time magazine identified him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. His previous books include In the Footsteps of Eve and The Skull in the Rock. He lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, with his wife and two children.
John Hawks is the Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he recently received the H. I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship and its Vilas Associate Award. He worked with Lee Berger during the Rising Star expedition and on subsequent fossil description and analysis. He maintains johnhawks.net, a weblog on paleoanthropology, genetics, and evolution. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife and four children.