Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Valentin L. Popov studied physics (1976-1982) and obtained his doctorate in 1985 from the Moscow State Lomonosov University. He worked at the Institute of Strength Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After a guest-professorship in the field of theoretical physics at the University of Paderborn (Germany) from 1999 to 2002, he has headed since 2002 the department of System Dynamics and the Physics of Friction in the Institute of Mechanics at the Berlin University of Technology.
Dr. Markus Heß studied physical engineering sciences at TU Berlin. He obtained his doctorate in 2011, receiving in the same year the Research Prize from the German Tribological Society for his dissertation. Since 2011, he has worked for the Studienkolleg at TU Berlin, where he teaches engineering mathematics.