Received his B.S. at the University of California, Davis in 1974, M.S. at the University of Wisconsin in 1975 and Ph.D. in animal breeding from Cornell University in 1978. In 1980 he joined Iowa State University. Max Rothschild is a CF Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and Life Sciences and holds the ME Ensminger Chair in International Animal Agriculture. Since 1993 Rothschild has served as the USDA Pig Genome Mapping Coordinator. In 2007 he was named director of the Center for Integrated Animal Genomics. Rothschild has devoted his research and teaching career to the fields of animal breeding and molecular genetics. He is widely recognized as a world leader in the field of pig genetics. He has presented numerous invited papers in over 40 countries and has over 300 refereed publications, 500 other publications and 11 patents. His awards include AAAS fellow, USDA Group Honor Award, ASAS award in Animal Breeding and Genetics and the ASAS International Service award, two R&D100 awards and was named Iowa Inventor of the year in 2002. Rothschild also has been active developing livestock projects in developing countries. Since graduation from Novosibirsk State University (Russia) in 1969 A. Ruvinsky has been working in several fields of genetics for more than 40 years. He received his PhD in 1974 and Dr.Sc. in 1985. In 1986 A. Ruvinsky was elected as head of laboratory of animal genetics and 1988 as Vice Director of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1993 A. Ruvinsky joined the University of New England, Australia. Professor Ruvinsky published more than 100 refereed papers in leading genetic journals and edited 14 books so far. This includes the series of books on mammalian genetics, which currently undergoes 2nd edition. His conceptual book "Genetics and Randomness" was published in 2009.