Maurizio Salaris studied physics at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza', and then worked at the Collurania-Teramo-Observatory, Italy, the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany, and the Astrophysics Research Institute of the Liverpool John Moores University, UK, where he currently holds the post of Professor of Stellar Astrophysics. He has published about 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and books, plus a monograph, co-authored by Santi Cassisi. Professor Salaris's scientific work focuses on theoretical stellar evolution, stellar population synthesis models, and the interpretation of photometric and spectroscopic observations of Galactic and extragalactic stellar populations. Santi Cassisi received his degree in physics from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 1991. He then spent a year at the Astronomical Observatory of Meudon-Paris, France, followed by a PhD-fellowship at the University of L'Aquila, Italy, from 1995 to 1997. In 1998, he accepted a post as staff researcher at the Collurania-Teramo-Observatory, a research unit of INAF. He currently holds a position as associate professor at the same institution. Professor Cassisi's research focuses on theoretical stellar evolution and its application to the study of both galactic and extra-galactic stellar populations. He has authored about 210 scientific papers, 115 of them in peer-reviewed journals, and a monograph.