Tom Beeckman studied botany at the Ghent University in Belgium and after performing postdoctoral research at the Molecular Genetics Department at the same university, he became group leader of the Root Development group at the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) in 2001. From 2007 onwards he became professor at Ghent University mainly teaching plant developmental biology. From the onset of his career, he devoted a considerable part of his research to understand how cell division is integrated into plant developmental processes, especially during the branching of roots. Later on, his group focused on the role of the plant hormone auxin in steering the spacing of lateral roots along the main root and more recently the focus of his research is broadened by the study of root development and root branching in non-seed plants with the objective to gain insight into the evolution of roots. Amram Eshel was born and raised in Israel, and received his academic degrees from Tel-Aviv University, where he was a member of the academic staff since 1980 until his retirement in 2012. During those years, he held short visiting appointments at Ohio Agricultural Research Center in Wooster, Ohio, Michigan State University, Penn State, CNRS at Gif-Sur-Yvette, and University of Western Australia. His main research interests are in the area of plant physiological ecology, especially as related to mineral nutrition and water relations. He is the manager of the Sarah Racine Root Research Laboratory at Tel-Aviv University.