Surya Prakash was born in Bangalore, India, in 1953. He received a B.Sc. (Honors) degree in 1972 from the Bangalore University and a M.Sc. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1974. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in 1978 from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1978 under the tutelage of George A. Olah. After postdoctoral work at USC, he was appointed to Research Assistant Professor position at the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute at USC in 1981 and soon promoted to Research Associate Professorship. In 1990, he accepted an Associate Professor position in the Chemistry Department at USC in the tenure track. He was promoted to full professorship in 1994. Currently, he holds the Olah Nobel Laureate Chair in Hydrocarbon Chemistry with research contributions and interests in new fluorination methods, new synthetic methods, mechanistic studies of organic reactions, electrochemistry, and superacid and hydrocarbon chemistry. He has published more than 300 papers, book chapters, and review articles; co-authored 4 books; and holds 3 patents. He has received many honors and recognition. He is currently an Advisory Editor of the International Journal of Porphyrins and Pthalocyanins.

Andrei Yudin was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1970. He received his B.S. degree in 1992 at the Moscow State University where he carried out research work in the labortory of Professor Nicolai S. Zefirov. In 1992 he joined the research group of Professor G. K. Surya Prakash at the University of Southern California where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1996. Currently, he is a postdoctoral associate in Professor K. Barry Sharpless' group at the Scripps Research Institute. His main research interests are in organofluorine chemistry and asymmetric catalysis.