Andrew H. Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is also Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Dr. Knoll teaches introductory courses in both departments. His research focuses on the early evolution of life, Precambrian environmental history, and the interconnections between the two. He has also worked extensively on the early evolution of animals, mass extinction, and plant evolution. He currently serves on the science team for NASA’s mission to Mars. Dr. Knoll received the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science for Life on a Young Planet. Other honors include the Paleontological Society Medal and Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society, London. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He received his Ph.D from Harvard University and then taught at Oberlin College before returning to Harvard. 

Robert A. Lue is Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Director of Life Science Education at Harvard University. He regularly teaches in Harvard’s first-year Life Sciences program and upper-level courses in cell biology. He has a longstanding commitment to interdisciplinary teaching and research, and chaired the faculty committee that developed an integrated science course to serve multiple science majors and premedical students. Dr. Lue has also developed award-winning multimedia, including the animation “The Inner Life of the Cell.” He has coauthored undergraduate biology textbooks and chaired education conferences on college biology for the National Academies and the National Science Foundation, and diversity in science for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institutes of Health. He also founded and directs a Harvard life sciences outreach program that serves over fifty high schools. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University.