Professor Neugebauer, Germany, carried out his undergraduate training in Chemistry/Biochemistry at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen before he studied Chemistry/Biochemistry in Aachen (engineer) and Marburg (PhD). Parallel to his research activities in shock at the Institute of Theoretical Surgery at the University of Marburg, he studied Medicine and became vice-chairman of the Institute. In 1989 he changed to the University of Cologne as head of the Biochemical and Experimental Division at the medical faculty. In October 2005 he was elected as Professor and Chair for Surgical Research and Director of the Institute for Research in Operative Medicine at the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany. His scientific activities are in basic research (trauma, shock, sepsis) as well as in clinical research (outcome, technology, assessment). He is a member of 10 scientific societies and serves on several boards. He is the European Editor of SHOCK and editor of several books in his research areas. His CV shows more than 500 publications. He is interested and active in the field of complexity and non-linearity since the early 90´s, and works together with mathematicians on in silico modeling of acute disease states.

Dr. Gilles Clermont is a critical care physician at the University of Pittsburgh with a graduate degree in Physics. He therefore is one of the few scientists that can speak "both languages", biology and mathematics, fluently. He initiated the interdisciplinary initiative on modeling inflammation at the University of Pittsburgh, has obtained substantial extra-mural funding for exploring complexity in acute illness, and is internationally known for his work on prediction modeling, epidemiology, long-term outcome, and cost-effectiveness assessment of new therapies in the critically ill. Dr. Clermont is the Medical Director of the Center for Inflammation and Regenerative Modeling at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Clermont is a Founding Member and Vice-President of the Society for Complexity in Acute Illness.

Dr. Lefering carried out his university studies in applied mathematics and statistics (diploma in 1989), biology and informatics in Muenster, Germany. He has been a Research Assistant at the 2nd Dept. of Surgery, University of Cologne, Germany (1989-Present). His PhD thesis concerned the multivariante prediction of postoperative symptoms after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Dr. Lefering´s special areas of research interest are multivariate statistics, scoring systems in traumatology and intensive care, quality assessment and audit, and economic analysis. He is now the Vice Chair of the Institute for Research in Operative Medicine at the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany.

Dr. Vodovotz carried out his undergraduate training in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in Immunology at Cornell University Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. He carried out two postdoctoral fellowships at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD on the molecular regulation of inducible nitric oxide production. He was subsequently the Director of Cellular and Molecular Research at the nonprofit Cardiovascular Research Institute (Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC). He is currently the Director of the Center for Inflammation and Regenerative Modeling and an Associate Professor of Surgery and Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he co-developed (with Drs. Gilles Clermont and Carson Chow) a mathematical model of the acute inflammatory response to infection and trauma. Dr. Vodovotz is a Founding Member and Secretary of the Society for Complexity in Acute Illness.