John E. McMurry received his B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. Dr. McMurry is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Foundation Fellow. He has received several awards, which include the National Institutes of Health Career Development Award, the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, and the Max Planck Research Award. In addition to The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways, he is also the author of Organic Chemistry, Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry, and Chemistry (with Robert Fay).

Tadhg P. Begley received his B.Sc. from National University of Ireland and his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Begley is the recipient of many awards, including the Merck Faculty Development Award and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. His research group uses the principles and techniques of organic chemistry to study complex organic transformations found in vitamin biosynthetic pathways. In addition to The Organic Chemistry of Biological Pathways, Dr. Begley has edited Cofactor Biosynthesis: A Mechanistic Perspective.