George Barakos is coming from Greece. He holds a diploma and a M.Sc. degree in Mineral Resources Engineering from the Technical University of Crete. He also holds a PhD degree in Mining Engineering from TU Bergakademie Freiberg. George is currently working as a research associate and post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Underground Mining Methods of TU Bergakademie Freiberg. His teaching and research interests are in the area of mine planning, technical and economic valuation of strategic metal deposits. He also has a working experience of some years in the mining industry.

Dr. Zach Agioutantis is the Mining Engineering Foundation Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Mining Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Prior to that he was a Professor and the Director of the Rock Mechanics Laboratory at the Technical University of Crete in Greece. He is very active in research related to sustainable development, ground control and rock mechanics and computer applications for the mining and geotechnical industry. He has developed stand-alone commercial software for use in ground control and subsidence engineering as well as freely distributed software for stability analysis of underground workings. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 publications.