Annika Badorreck studied Agricultural Science in Kiel and Hohenheim (both Germany) with special emphasis on soil and plant science. Currently she is working on her PhD thesis which focuses on the development and interactions of preferential flow paths on the surface and in the soil of recultivated areas.

Karen Campbel is the Education Director at the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics, a National Science Foundation sponsored Science and Technology Center. She divides her time between the headquarters at a wonderful laboratory on an island in the Mississippi River, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, and - just downstream in St. Paul - the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Werner Gerwin studied Applied Physical Geography and is currently coordinating the Research Center Landscape Development and Mining Landscapes at the BTU Cottbus. His main research interests are in the field of soil science and landscape development. In this context he is involved in the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 38 "Structures and Processes of the Initial Ecosystem Development Phase in an Artificial Water Catchment".

Douglas Jerolmack is an assistant professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, and a formar postdoc at the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics. His research focuses on the spatial and temporal evolution of patterns that emerge at the interface of fluid and sediment on Earth and planetary surfaces. Currently he is working on river delta evolution, and the nature of transport fluctuations in sedimentary systems.

Julia Krümmelbein studied Agricultural Sciences in Kiel, Germany 1997-2003. For her Diploma she investigated physical properties of a volcanic ash soil in Chile. During her PhD studies she characterised water balance and mechanical stability of a steppe soil in Inner Mongolia, P.R. China. Areas of interest: Soil hydraulic and soil mechanical properties. Presently coordinator of a recultivation project in former open cast mining areas.

Thomas Maurer studied geology and soil science and is now a postdoc in the Collaborative Research Center at the Research Center Landscape Development and Mining Landscapes, BTU Cottbus. His main research interests focuses on the interconnections between erosion processes and soil surface structures and the modelling of initial structural dynamics of geo- and ecosystems, i.a. with the help of remote sensing techniques.

Since July 2007, Thomas Raab has been Visiting Professor of Geopedology and Landscape Development at the BTU Cottbus. He obtained a Diploma in Geography (1995) and a PhD in Geography and Geology (1999) at the University of Regensburg, Germany. From 1999 to 2001, Thomas worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher for Soil Science at the Department of Geography at the University of Jena, Germany. From 2001 to 2005 he was Assistant Professor for Physical Geography and Soil Science at the Chair of Pre- and Protohistory at the University of Regensburg. Before moving to Cottbus, Thomas was Professor for Physical Geography and Provisional Head of the Department of Physical Geography at the University of Regensburg. At the BTU Cottbus he is the deputy of Reinhard F. Hüttl as the head of the Chair of Soil Protection and Recultivation.

The research focus of Craig Rasmussen is on soil processes and soil genesis at the pedon, landscape, and regional scale.  Specific areas of interest: Soil formation and soil forming processes; Organo-mineral interactions in soil systems; Role of soil mineral assemblage in controlling soil organic carbon dynamics and sequestration; Modeling environmental energy transfer to soil systems as a control of pedogenesis and mineral weathering; Interaction of soil development with soil-water and vegetation dynamics in arid and semiarid ecosystems; Use of digital soil mapping techniques to quantitatively predict soil-landscape relationships

Liam Reinhardt is an adjunct assistant professor at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL). His home institution is the University of Exeter (UK) where he is a lecturer in physical geography. Liam is interested in transient landscape responses to perturbations such as base-level fall (e.g. vertical fault movement) and climate change. He recently completed a 2-year research program at SAFL where he 'grew' model mountains and linked sediment efflux to the evolution of model topography. Please go to Liam's webpage for more information on his research

Anna Schneider is a PhD student at the Research Center Landscape Development and Mining Landscapes, BTU Cottbus. Her background is in soil science and geomorphology, and she is working on modeling the spatial and temporal evolution of sediment mass balances and surface structures in initial phases of ecosystem development.

Claudia Zimmermann studied geoecology in Freiberg/Germany with main focus in soil since, ecology and environmental microbiology. Currently she is working on her PhD in soil chemistry at the BTU Cottbus. Her main interest is in interactions between soil solution and mineral surfaces in particular mineral weathering, sorption processes and carbon sequestration in initial soils.