Giorgio Bertorelle currently teaches Biometry, Phylogeny Reconstruction and Conservation Genetics at the University of Ferrara, Italy. He is the president and co-founder of the Italian Society for Evolutionary Biology. Michael W. Bruford, formerly Head of the Conservation Genetics Group at the Institute of Zoology, London, has been professor and research group leader at the Cardiff School of Biosciences since 1999, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conservation biology and molecular ecology. Heidi C. Hauffe trained in evolutionary biology and established the first genetics laboratory at the Centro di Ecologia Alpina, Trento, Italy, in 1997. Now at the Edmund Mach Foundation, her research interests range from rodent-borne viruses to speciation to conservation genetics of alpine mammals. She is currently affiliated to the University of York, UK, and the Institute of Vertebrate Biology, CZ. Annapaola Rizzoli is currently the coordinator of the Environmental and Natural Resources Division and head of the Wildlife Ecology and Epidemiology Group at the Edmund Mach Foundation. Her main research interests are host–parasite interactions and emerging zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Cristiano Vernesi is a researcher at the Edmund Mach Foundation, Trento, Italy. He is also one of the founders and scientific director of the Association 'Biosfera', a non-profit association devoted to research and teaching in conservation biology.