Albert J. R. Heck (1964) received his PhD in 1993 from the University of Amsterdam. He worked till 1996 as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and Sandia National Laboratories (USA). In 1996 he became senior research fellow and later lecturer at the University of Warwick (UK). Since 1998 he is professor in Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics at Utrecht University (NL).

Heck is among others recipient of the Field and Franklin Award (ACS), the Krebs Medal (FEBS), Thomson Award (IMSC) and the NWO Spinoza Prize. He is member of EMBO and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Arts. His research focuses on the development and applications of mass spectrometry-based proteomics and structural biology. Heck pioneered technologies for phospho-enrichment, and the use of alternative proteases and hybrid peptide fragmentation techniques. Besides, Heck is also known for his expertise in structural biology, being a pioneer in both native mass spectrometry and cross-linking mass spectrometry.

Dr. Gundry is Professor and Vice Chair of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, Assistant Chief of Basic and Translational Research for the Division of Cardiology and is the Director of the CardiOmics Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The Gundry lab applies mass spectrometry technologies for advancing basic and translational cardiac research and clinical care. Through development and application of innovative approaches and bioinformatic tools to study cell surface glycoproteins and glycans, the Gundry lab aims to answer outstanding questions in stem cell and cardiac biology and disease. Dr. Gundry is a Council Member of HUPO, Co-Chair of the HUPO B/D HPP Cardiovascular Initiative, is on the Board of Directors of US HUPO, and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. The Gundry lab is funded by the American Heart Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and National Institutes of Health.

David R. Walt is the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Associate Member at the Broad Institute, and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Dr. Walt is co-Director of the Mass General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation. Dr. Walt is the Scientific Founder of Illumina Inc., Quanterix Corp., and has co-founded several other life sciences startups. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors for his fundamental and applied work in the field of optical microwell arrays and single molecules He has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2017 American Chemical Society Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success, the 2016 Ralph Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, the 2014 American Chemical Society Gustavus John Esselen Award, the 2013 Analytical Chemistry Spectrochemical Analysis Award, the 2013 Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award, and the 2010 ACS National Award for Creative Invention. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and is inducted in the US National Inventors Hall of Fame

Professor Michael S. Strano is currently the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received is B.S from Polytechnic university in Brooklyn, NY and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware both in Chemical Engineering. He was a post doctoral research fellow at Rice University in the departments of Chemistry and Physics under the guidance of Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley. From 2003 to 2007, Michael was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before moving to MIT. His research focuses on biomolecule/nanoparticle interactions and the surface chemistry of low dimensional systems, nano-electronics, nanoparticle separations, and applications of vibrational spectroscopy to nanotechnology.
Michael is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including a 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2006 Beckman Young Investigator Award, the 2006 Coblentz Award for Molecular Spectroscopy, the Unilever Award from the American Chemical Society in 2007 for excellence in colloidal science, and the 2008 Young Investigator Award from the Materials Research Society and the 2008 Allen P. Colburn Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. From 2014 to 2015 he served as member of the Defense Science Study Group, and is currently an editor for
the journals Carbon and Protocols in Chemical Biology. Michael was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017.