Jorge Casalderrey-Solana is a Ramón y Cajal Researcher at the Universitat de Barcelona. His research focuses on the properties of QCD matter produced in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. Hong Liu is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include quantum gravity and exotic quantum matter. David Mateos is ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona, where he leads a group working on the connection between string theory and quantum chromodynamics. Krishna Rajagopal is a Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on QCD at high temperature or density, where new understanding can come from unexpected directions. Urs Achim Wiedemann is a Senior Theoretical Physicist at CERN, researching the theory and phenomenology of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions.