Reiner Kümmel, born in 1939, is a retired professor of theoretical physics.   His fields of work are the theory of superconductivity, semiconductor theory and energy science. Before his appointment at the University of Würzburg in 1974, he studied/researched/taught at the TH Darmstadt (physics diploma), the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (research assistant to John Bardeen), the University of Frankfurt/M.. (doctorate and habilitation) and the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. From 1996 to 1998 he was chairman of the Energy Working Group of the German Physical Society.

PD Dr. Dietmar Lindenberger studied economics and physics in Stuttgart, Würzburg and Albany (USA), received his doctorate in 1999 on questions of energy and economic growth and habilitated in 2005 at the University of Cologne. At the Institute of Energy Economics (EWI) in Cologne, he is active in teaching, research and consulting, among others for the EU Commission, the Federal Chancellery, federal and state ministries, national and international energy companies and research funding institutions. He has published widely on energy issues and is, among other things, lead author of the energy scenarios for the German government's energy concept.

Apl. Prof. Dr. Niko Paech studied economics, received his doctorate in 1993, habilitated in 2005 and held the Chair of Production and Environment at Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg from 2008 to 2016. He currently researches and teaches at the University of Siegen in the Master's programme in Plural Economics. His main research interests are post-growth economics, climate change mitigation, sustainable consumption, sustainable supply chain management, sustainability communication and innovation management. He is active in various sustainability-oriented research projects, networks and initiatives as well as in the supervisory board of two cooperatives.