Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan is a distinguished American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. Born on October 3, 1951, in Paterson, New Jersey, she became the first American woman to walk in space on October 11, 1984, during the Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-G. Sullivan's academic background includes a bachelor's degree in Earth sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. in geology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dr. Mark R. Abbott is a distinguished scholar and administrator in the field of Earth System Science. He began his academic journey at the University of California, Berkeley, where he combined his interest in the environment with his abilities in math, leading him to the field of ecological modeling. He continued his studies at the University of California, Davis, where he worked with Tom Powell, a high-energy physicist studying Lake Tahoe. After completing his PhD, Dr.