John Kogut obtained his PhD from Stanford University in 1971. He was nominated for the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize, for the International Scientists' Boycott of the Strategic Defense Initiative. He is currently Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is co-author of over 200 original papers in elementary particle, high-energy and condensed matter physics, and is the author of one previous book. Mikhail Sephanov obtained his PhD from the University of Oxford in 1994. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 1994 to 1997 and then spent two years at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is presently Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and RHIC Fellow. His research interests lie in particle and nuclear physics, quantum field theory on the lattice, matter under extreme conditions, and heavy-ion collisions.