Biographical note

Jozef Šamaj studied at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. After PhD promotion he did three post-docs supported by Eurosilva, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and EU Marie Curie Programme in well recognized laboratories in Toulouse, Bonn and Vienna. He worked on the cell biology of lignification enzymes, arabinogalactan proteins, cytoskelatal and signalling proteins, especially on mitogen-activated-protein kinases. He is now a lecturer and associate researcher at the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany in Bonn, Germany. His main research interest is focused on the role of stress-induced MAP-Kinase cascades in relation to the vesicular trafficking and cytoskeleton during root hair development and root adaptation to stresses in two plant model species Arabidopsis thaliana and Medicago truncatula. He co-edited one monograph: Šamaj J, Bobák M, Ovecka M, Blehová B, Pretová A (1997) Structural features of plant morphogenesis in vitro. Veda, Bratislava, Slovakia, pp. 122 (ISBN 80-224-0505-1)

František Baluška studied at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, After promotion he did ten years of scientific work at the Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences (Bratislava, Slovakia), he accomplished two post-docs supported by Royal Society (London) and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn) in Bristol and Bonn. During this time, he was mainly focusing on the cell biology of plant cytoskeleton, especially as related to growth and polarity of cells in root apex. Now he is lecturer and associate researcher at the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany in Bonn, Germany. His current main research interest is the signal-mediated interactions between membrane trafficking and cytoskeleton in two plant model species Zea mays and Arabidopsis thaliana. He co-edited three books:

Baluška F, Ciamporová M, Gašparíková O, Barlow PW (eds) (1995) Structure and Function of Roots. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (ISBN 0-7923-2832-9)

Staiger CJ, Baluška F, Volkmann D, Barlow PW (eds) (2000) Actin: a Dynamic Framework for Multiple Plant Cell Functions. ), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (ISBN 0-7923-6412-0)

Gašparíková O, Ciamporová M, Mistrik I, Baluška F (eds) (2001) Recent Advances of Plant Root Structure and Function. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands (ISBN 0-7923-6658-1)

Diedrik Menzel graduated at the Free University of Berlin in 1982. He was a predoctoral research fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Melbourne and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Departments of Botany and Zoology of the Unicversity of California at Berkely. 1988 he was habilitated by the Faculty of Biology, University of Heidelberg and became a leader of the Plant Cytoskeleton Group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Cell Biology in Ladenburg. 1996 he was appointed as full Professor in Plant Cell Biology by the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn. His work is related to Cell architecture and morphogenesis in higher plants and algae.Long standing interest in on the molecular analysis and intracellular visualization of cytoskeletal-, motor-, and regulatory proteins. Current emphasis is on actin Cytoskeleton and endomembrane dynamics, molecular architecture of plant myosins. His other interest is on Gene expression and intracellular transport of mRNA in the unicellular green alga Acetabularia. He edited one book "The Cytoskeleton of the Algae" published by CRC-Press, Boca Raton, and he was an Associate Editor of "European Journal of Phycology" in 1996-2002, and Editor in Chief of "Protoplasma"in 2000-2003.