Walter H F Smith earned his PhD in marine geophysics in 1990 in the Gravity Department of the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University (New York, USA). His thesis was on marine geophysical studies of seamounts in the Western Pacific Ocean. While at Lamont he began his ongoing collaboration with Paul Wessel on the GMT data analysis and map-making software.

From 1990 to 1992 he was a "Green Scholar" at the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, where he began his ongoing collaboration with David Sandwell on the use of satellite altimetry in ocean mapping.

Since 1992 he has been a Geophysicist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in NOAA's Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has also been a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University where he taught Data Analysis and Inverse Theory.

Walter has worked with GEBCO since 1993 and has served as Scientific Advisor, member of the Strategic Planning Committee and the ad-hoc working group on Gridding, Chair of the Integration of Geoscientific Data Working Group, and currently is Chair of the Sub-Committee on Digital Bathymetry.

Lisa Taylor graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in Geology in 1985. She worked for the US Naval Oceanographic Office conducting hydrographic surveys and the US Geological Survey National Water Quality Lab before working in her current job as a geophysicist for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

While working for NOAA, Ms. Taylor has actively participated in the IOC regional bathymetric mapping projects, compiling and reviewing bathymetry for the International Bathymetric Chart of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico (IBCCA) and the International Bathymetric Chart of the Western Indian Ocean (IBCWIO). In addition, she compiled new bathymetry for Lake Erie as part of a joint project with the Canadian Hydrographic Service. She serves on the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) and manages the digitization and quality review of hydrographic sounding sheets. Ms. Taylor is trained in alternative dispute resolution and mediates for NOAA and her community.

Pauline Weatherall graduated from Liverpool University with a degree in Geology in 1987. She has worked at the British Oceanographic Data Centre since 1990 as the GEBCO Digital Atlas Manager, maintaining and updating the GEBCO Digital Atlas (GDA). This has involved carrying out quality control checks on data sets for inclusion in the GDA and doing any necessary digitizing work. She also deals with some of the enquiries regarding the GDA and its data sets.

Karen Marks has worked as a geophysicist at the NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry since 1990. She received a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Houston, USA. Her current research includes evaluating bathymetric datasets for United Nations Law of the Sea applications. Her research also encompasses marine tectonic and geodynamic applications of satellite altimetry with emphasis on plate tectonic histories and seafloor spreading.

After completing a Ph.D. in marine geophysics at the University of Cambridge, U.K. in 1967 I joined the then National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Wormley, Surrey where I was employed by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as a research scientist. NIO later became the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences and then the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory (IOSDL). In 1995 IOSDL transferred to Southampton to become a major component, with the Departments of Geology and Oceanography of the University of Southampton, of the brand new Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC). I retired from NERC employment in 2001 and took on the post of Permanent Secretary of GEBCO in January the same year, remaining in this position until December 2010. I remain a Visiting Professor within SOC's School of Ocean and Earth Science.

My scientific research career covered most aspects of marine geophysics but with special emphasis on wide-angle seismic experiments using ocean bottom seismographs. I worked on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and, latterly, on rifted continental margins where, together with the use of scientific drilling within the Ocean Drilling Program, I specialised in the geological processes that accompany continental break-up and the onset of seafloor spreading.

George Newton is an electrical engineer who served 25 years in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear-trained submarine officer. He retired as a Captain after commanding a nuclear attack submarine. He has been involved in Arctic and Arctic Ocean research for almost 35 years. He has served as an Advisor, Member and Chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission continuously since 1988 under Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.