Ian Shaw took an undergraduate degree in sociology at the time when the discipline was expanding rapidly in Western countries. He worked as a Probation Officer for a few years before moving to Cardiff University and much later to the University of York. He has - happily for him - never lost the nagging challenges that a social science agenda brings. He has had published perhaps seventy papers in peer reviewed journals, written or edited about twenty books, and completed about fifty chapters for collections. He led the development of the European Conference for Social Work Research and was the first chair of the European Social Work Research Association until 2015. He initiated the international journal Qualitative Social Work. The rather mis-titled Evaluating in Practice (Ashgate) is, he suspects, the most original argument he has accomplished. 2014 saw the publication of his first extended research methods text, Doing Qualitative Research in Social Work (Sage. With Sally Holland). His Social Work Science (2016. Columbia University Press) is perhaps the most demanding manuscript he has tackled thus far. A four-volume 'Major Work' on Social Work Research (Sage 2015. With Jeanne Marsh and Mark Hardy) consists of 67 papers that they think are in the first rank of importance from any period in social work. Much of his recent work builds on a sabbatical to undertake a historical study of the relationship of social work and sociology, which took him to the University of Chicago in 2011. His garden, cooking, Dylan and a very good church take as much time as he can give. Katharine Briar-Lawson is an experienced academic administrator and national expert on family focused practice and child and family policy. Among her books (co-authored) are Family-Centered Policies & Practices: International Implications (2001) and (co-edited) Innovative Practices with Vulnerable Children and Families (2001). She has recently co-edited two volumes on Evaluation Research in Child Welfare, (2002) and Charting the Impacts of University-Child Welfare Collaboration, (2003). She is a member of the Council on Social Work Education Practice Commission; she also serves as associate editor for the New Global Development: Journal of International and Comparative Social Welfare, and is consulting editor for Social Work, as well as Family Preservation. She Co-Chairs the Gerontological Task Force for the National Association for Deans and Directors. Joan Orme began her social work career as a probationofficer working first in Sheffield and then Southampton. Her first academic post at the University of Southampton was specifically for training probation officers. She continued in generic social work education, with a specific interest in probation education and training, at Southampton until she took up her post at Glasgow . Joan was appointed the first Professor of Social Work at the University of Glasgow in October 2000 and helped to establish the Glasgow School of Social Work, a joint Schoolof Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. She was appointed the founding Head of the School in 2003. Joan is active in a number of Scottish and UK organisations. In 2001-2004 she was Chair of the Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee (JUC SWEC) that represents universities with social work courses. In that role she represented social work academics on the Department of Health Project Board for the Social Work degree in England . She was appointed a lifelong fellow of the JUC in 2005. In 2000-2004 she was a member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Training Board and was Vice Chair from 2003-2005. She currently holds a Researcher Development Initiative (RDI) grant from the ESRC for Increasing the confidence and competence of Social Work researchers: building research capacity in social work. Details of the RDI are available at www.rdi.ac.uk. She is a member of the steering group that developed the JUC SWEC Research Strategy http://www.swap.ac.uk/research/strategy.asp and a member of the Steering Group for the Research and Development Strategy for Social Services in Scotland Professor Ruckdeschel is Co-Editor and Co-Founding Editor, along with Ian Shaw of the UK, of the Sage journal Qualitative Social Work: Research and Practice. He is a current member and past chair of the University-wide Qualitative Research Committee. He has also recently chaired the School of Social Work Rank & Tenure Committee (1998-2002) and the Family Concentration (1999-2002) and has served on and/or chaired numerous School committees. Professor Ruckdeschel currently serves on the Advisory Committee of Ethics Across the Curriculum (1998-present) and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Center for Health Care Ethics (1997-present).