Dr. Qin Dahe was recently the co-chair of Working Group 1 of the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 2002-2008. His scientific assessment activities eventually facilitated the IPCC to become a 2007 Noble Peace Prize laureate. Dr. Qin Dahe is a well-known glaciologist and climatologist and research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is also the former Administrator of the China Meteorological Administration and the former Permanent Representative of China with the World Meteorological Organization. He was a member of Will Steger's Trans-Antarctica Expedition, the historic seven month, 3,741-mile International Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1989–90 which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary in Minnesota in early December.

Dr. Elizabeth J. Wilson is an Associate Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy and Law at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She holds a doctorate in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University and masters in Human Ecology from the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. Her research examines the development of carbon-managed energy systems. She spent 2009-2010 as a guest professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China researching energy and environmental policy issues