Yoshihiro Asai is a former director of a research center at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan. He joined Prof. Ken-ichi Fukui's group at Kyoto University, Japan, and was awarded a PhD in 1987 in the field of quantum chemistry. He then moved as a tenured researcher to Dr. J. Kondo's group at Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL) and started research on condensed matter physics theory, including strongly correlated electron systems, superconductivity, computational physics, and non-equilibrium transport. His research has been focused on inelastic electric currents, electron and phonon currents, local heating, and vibronic effects on current noise. Dr. Asai's work contributes to the understanding of fundamental physical processes and has practical implications for technologies such as nanoelectronics, thermoelectric devices, and quantum materials.

Marius E. Bürkle joined Yoshihiro Asai's group as a JSPS fellow and became a chief senior researcher at AIST. He joined Prof. Gerd Schön's group at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and was awarded a PhD in 2011 for his thesis on "Ab initio description of electron transport through nanoscale systems." His research is focused on nanoscale systems, particularly electron transport, as well as single-molecule charge transport and quantum interference. His work includes studies on heat dissipation and its relation to thermopower in single-molecule junctions, nanoscale orchestration, thermoelectric properties, and quantum transport.