Robert Krauthgamer received his Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2001 under Uriel Feige. He was subsequently a postdoc in Berkeley's theory group, and then a Research Staff Member at the theory group in the IBM Almaden Research Center. Since 2007, he has been a faculty member at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Robert's main research area is the design of algorithms for problems involving combinatorial optimization, finite metric spaces, high-dimensional geometry, data analysis, and related areas. His favorite sport since youth is swimming, and once he swam across the Sea of Galilee in a 10km race, and was the last one to arrive at the finish line.

Tim Roughgarden received his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 2002 under Éva Tardos. His research interests are in algorithms, and especially in algorithmic game theory.