Prof. Allemann obtained his PhD from Harvard University & the ETH Zürich in 1988.  He performed his habilitation at the Department of Chemistry, ETH Zürich in 1999. After this time he joined the University of Birmingham, where in 2001 he was appointed to Professor of Chemical Biology. In 2005, Prof. Allemann became the Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University. Prof. Allemann's research interests include the de novo design of miniproteins with novel functions unprecedented in nature, the photonic control of biomacromolecular interactions and function using light activatation of small peptides.

Dr. Gregg B. Fields received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the University of Florida and Florida State University, respectively. He joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 1991 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1995. He then achieved his present rank of full Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Florida Atlantic University in 1997. In 2008, Dr. Fields became a Robert A. Welch Foundation Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry in the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Fields' research interests are in the use of chemical approaches to better understand how protein three-dimensional structures influence cellular and enzymatic behaviors. Dr. Fields has authored or coauthored more than 200 scientific publications and presented over 100 invited lectures. Dr. Fields is President-elect of the American Peptide Society, and will serve as president from 2009-2011.

Baroness Greenfield is Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (the first woman to hold that position) and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, where she leads a multi-disciplinary team investigating neurodegenerative disorders.  In addition she is Director of the Oxford Centre for the Science of the Mind, exploring the physical basis of consciousness.

Her books include “The Human Brain: A Guided Tour” (1997), “The Private Life of the Brain” (2000), and “Tomorrow’s People: How 21st Century Technology Is Changing the Way We Think and Feel” (2003) and “‘ID’ - The Quest for Identity” is due to be published in May 2008 by Hodder Publishing.  She has spun off four companies from her research, made a diverse contribution to print and broadcast media, and led a Government report on “Women In Science”.  She has received 29 honorary degrees, an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (2000), a non-political life peerage (2001) as well as the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur (2003).  In 2006 she was installed as Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University and voted `Honorary Australian of the Year’.  In 2007 she was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.