Gove Effinger received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) in 1981 and subsequently taught at Bates College for 5 years and then Skidmore College for 29 years. He is the author of two books: Additive Number Theory of Polynomials over a Finite Field (with David R. Hayes), and Common-Sense BASIC: Structured Programming with Microsoft QuickBASIC (with Alice M. Dean), as well as numerous research papers. His research focus has primarily been concerned with the similarities of the ring of polynomials over a finite field to the ring of ordinary integers.

Gary L. Mullen is Professor of Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. He has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses there for over 40 years. In addition, he has written more than 150 research papers and five books, including both graduate as well as undergraduate textbooks. He also served as department head for seven years and has served as an editor on numerous editorial boards, including having served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Finite Fields and Their Applications since its founding in 1995.