Béatrice Delaurenti is Associate Professor in History at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), Paris and a Director of the Center for Historical Research (CRH, Centre de recherches historiques) of the EHESS.

Thomas Le Roux is Associate Professor of Research in History at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and coauthor (with François Jarrige) of The Contamination of the Earth (MIT Press). Le Roux is a Director of the Center for Historical Research (CRH, Centre de recherches historiques) of the EHESS.