Jonathan W. Steed was born in London, UK in 1969. He obtained his B. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees at University College London, working with Derek Tocher on coordination and organometallic chemistry directed towards inorganic drugs and new metal-mediated synthesis methodologies. He graduated in 1993, winning the Ramsay Medal for his Ph. D. work. Between 1993 and 1995 he was a NATO postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alabama and University of Missouri, working with Jerry Atwood. In 1995 he was appointed as a Lecturer at Kings College London and in 1998 he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Meldola Medal. In 2004 he joined Durham University where he is currently Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. As well as Supramolecular Chemistry (2000) Professor Steed is co-author of the textbook Core Concepts in Supramolecular Chemistry and Nanochemistry (2007) and more than 200 research papers. He has published a large number of reviews, book chapters and popular articles as well as two major edited works, the Encyclopaedia of Supramolecular Chemistry (2004) and Organic Nanostructures (2008). He has been an Associate Editor of New Journal of Chemistry since 2001 and is the recipient of the Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching (2006). His interests are in supramolecular sensing and molecular materials chemistry.
Jerry L. Atwood was born in Springfield MO, USA in 1942. He attended Southwest Missouri State University, where he obtained his B. S. degree in 1964. He carried out graduate research with Galen Stuckey at the University of Illinois, where he obtained his Ph. D. in 1968. He was immediately appointed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama, where he rose through Associate Professor (1972) to full Professor in 1978. In 1994 he was appointed Professor and Chair at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Professor Atwood is the author of more than 600 scientific publications. His research interests revolve around a number of themes in supramolecular chemistry including gas storage and separation and the control of confi ned space. He has also worked on the self-assembly of noncovalent capsules, liquid clathrate chemistry, anion binding and fundamental solid state interactions, and is a world-renown crystallographer. He co-founded the journals Supramolecular Chemistry (1992) and Journal of Inclusion Phenomena (1983). He has edited an enormous range of seminal works in supramolecular chemistry including the fi ve-volume series Inclusion Compounds (1984 and 1991) and the 11-volume Comprehensive Supramolecular Chemistry (1996). In 2000 he was awarded the Izatt-Christensen Prize in Supramolecular Chemistry.
