Patrick O'Sullivan was formerly Principal Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of Plymouth, UK. His research was mainly been conducted into the development through time of lake-watershed ecosystems, and the reconstruction of lake ontogenies using palaeolimnological and documentary proxy records. Throughout his teaching career, he concentrated on development of interdisciplinary programmes in Environmental Science, and the interface between the scientific understanding of human impact upon natural processes in lakes, and the economic and philosophical ideas which lie behind the solutions to 'environmental' problems. Colin Reynolds is a Research Fellow at the Windermere Laboratory of the Freshwater Biological Association. Most of his work there has been directed towards the ecology and dynamics of phytoplankton, in lakes, rivers and reservoirs. He has published over 200 research papers, two books and edited or co-edited several others. He won the International Prize in Limnetic Ecology in 1994 and was awarded the Naumann–Thienemann medal of SIL, the International Association for Limnology.