Adil Bagirov is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Informatics and Applied Optimization, School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, University of Ballarat, Australia. He graduated from Baku State University (Azerbaijan) in Applied Mathematics / Operations Research, and holds PhD degrees in Mathematics from the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, and from the University of Ballarat.

Dr. Bagirov has written some 50 research articles that appeared in professional journals. Please see the illustrative references and visit the web site http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/itms/staff/abagirov.shtml for further information.

János D. Pintér is President and Research Scientist (owner of Pintér Consulting Services, Inc.), as well as an Adjunct Professor at Dalhousie University, both in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He holds an MSc in Applied Mathematics / Operations Research from the University of Sciences, Budapest (ELTE); obtained his PhD in Probability Theory / Stochastic Optimization from Moscow State University; and also holds a DSc in Mathematics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Pintér has written and edited books, and authored numerous articles and technical documents related to nonlinear, global, and stochastic optimization. He is the developer of the LGO, Excel/LGO, GAMS/LGO, TOMLAB/LGO, MathOptimizer and MathOptimizer Professional software products. He has lectured and worked in over 25 countries of the world (in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand).

Dr. Pintér serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Global Optimization, the Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences, and of the web forums GAMS Global World and GAMS Performance World.

Please see the illustrative references and visit http://www.dal.ca/~jdpinter for further professional details.

Alexander M. Rubinov is Professor and Director of the Centre for Informatics and Applied Optimization, School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, University of Ballarat, Australia. He graduated from Leningrad State University, Russia. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Leningrad State University, and a DSc in Mathematics from the Academy of Sciences of the (former) Soviet Union.

Professor Rubinov has published extensively: he wrote and edited books, and wrote numerous articles that appeared in professional journals worldwide. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Global Optimization, Optimization, Optimization Methods and Software, and of the Pacific Journal on Optimization. He has presented lectures and worked in Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and the Pacific Rim, including Australia and New Zealand.

Please see the illustrative references and visit http://uob-community.ballarat.edu.au/~arubinov/ for further information.