**About the Editors**

## **R. Stephen Berry**

R. Stephen Berry was professor of chemical physics at the University of Chicago since 1964 where he made major contributions in an exceptionally wide range of subjects, both experimentally and theoretically. Early in his career, he conceived of the idea that operating any process at a non-vanishing speed necessarily has a cost. The energy crisis of 1973 combined with a seminal paper in 1975 focused the effort, in collaboration with the other two editors of this volume, into what we named finite-time thermodynamics. In this effort, Steve always generously shared his insight and related the new findings to a wide range of other topics such as shock tube experiments and economics. At the same time, Steve contributed to atomic collision theory and experiments, photoelectron spectroscopy, thermodynamics of shock tubes, and the theory of clusters, just to mention a few examples. Early on, he studied the energy budget of the entire chain from the extraction of raw materials to the production of a finished car, and further to its disposal, a procedure which today is called life cycle analysis. Steve was a member of the academies of sciences in the USA and Denmark and home secretary of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) from 1999 until 2003. In addition, he served on many committees related to inclusion of scientific information into public policy and decision making. Science education for all students was also high on his agenda. Sadly, Steve passed away in 2020 as we were editing this volume.

## **Peter Salamon**

Peter Salamon (contact at: psalamon@sdsu.edu) received his PhD in chemical physics from the University of Chicago during his collaboration with the other two editors of this volume, a collaboration that started finite-time thermodynamics. He has been a professor in the Mathematics Department at San Diego State University from 1980 to the present, with visiting positions at the Hebrew University, the University of Heidelberg, and the University of Copenhagen, among others. His research has always revolved around thermodynamics very broadly interpreted. This let him stray as far as machine learning, global optimization, and microbial ecology. His numerous collaborations earned him an Erdos number of one and the designation as a hub in the Collaborative ¨ Distance Graph linking collaborators from numerous far-flung fields to Paul Erdos. He co-founded ¨ Telluride Science Research Center, which gave early finite-time thermodynamics and other fledgling fields an important venue.

## **Bjarne Andresen**

Bjarne Andresen (contact at: andresen@nbi.ku.dk) was a professor at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen 1978–2020 and is currently affiliated with the NBI as emeritus. Along with the other two editors of this Special Issue, he started the field of finite-time thermodynamics (FTT) in 1975 and has participated in spreading the idea of limiting the duration of a process to a fixed time, thus causing unavoidable losses. A key element of FTT is optimizing the path of the process. Prof. Bjarne Andresen has contributed to applying FTT to as diverse fields as chemistry, physics, engineering, optimization theory, economics, biology, a.o. Lately, he has worked with Professor Christopher Essex on extending thermodynamics to extremely long time and size scales. Early in his career, he contributed to atomic collision theory. In 1984, the three co-editors started The Telluride Science Research Center as a secluded retreat for developing new wild ideas in science. At the periphery of science, prof. Bjarne Andresen has been the president of the Section for Theoretical Chemistry of the Danish Chemical Society, chairman of the committee on research and education of the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations, chairman of the Danish Forum for University Policy and Planning, and is currently treasurer of the Danish Academy of Natural Sciences.
