John C. Russ received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering and solid-state physics from California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in engineering from California Coast University. At the Homer Research Labs of Bethlehem Steel Corp., in the 1960s, development of new steel alloys, such as those used in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, was strongly linked to the microstructure as revealed by light and electron microscopy, microprobe, and x-ray analysis. In 1968, Dr. Russ became director of the Applications Laboratories at Japan Electron Optics Laboratories (JEOL), introducing the scanning electron microscope. From there, it was a natural step to join in the formation of EDAX, which became the leading supplier of microanalysis instrumentation for use on SEMs and TEMs. As senior vice president, he was deeply involved in the development of these devices, the creation of software for qualitative and quantitative interpretation of the spectra, and the imaging of elemental distributions. After the sale of EDAX to Philips, Dr. Russ joined the faculty of North Carolina State University in 1978. He also participated in research at the Danish Technological Institute. After retirement from formal teaching duties at NCSU in 1996, he accepted a position as research director of Rank Taylor Hobson, a British manufacturer of precision instrumentation. He continues to be active as an adjunct professor at NCSU, as well as a consultant and author.

As a professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, Dr. Russ and his students have used a broad array of microscope technologies to study materials microstructures and surfaces. These have included conventional and confocal light microscopes, electron and ion microprobes, scanning and transmission electron microscopes, x-ray and neutron tomography, and a variety of scanned probe microscopes. The need to process these images to obtain quantitative structural information led to the development of computer control for instruments and computer processing for the data. Dr. Russ has become widely known as a leader in the development and use of these tools for image analysis. At NCSU his collaborations have extended far beyond the materials science field, including food science, archaeology, biology, veterinary medicine, textiles, and others. Beyond the campus, he has worked with a worldwide range of companies in fields such as pharmaceutical and energy applications, and has been retained as an expert witness in forensic cases, both civil and criminal.

Through academic courses and workshops, Dr. Russ has presented image analysis methods to more than 4,000 students. He has taught acclaimed hands-on workshops worldwide, from Australia to Slovenia, Japan to South Africa. His more than 300 publications, including more than a dozen books, have reached thousands more. These books include Computer Assisted Microscopy, Practical Stereology (with Robert Dehoff),Fractal Surfaces, The Image Processing Handbook (now in its fifth edition), Forensic Uses of Digital Imaging , and Image Analysis of Food Microstructure . On November 16, 2006, Dr. Russ received the 2006 Ernst Abbe Memorial Award of the New York Microscopical Society for achievements made in the field of microscopy.

J. Christian (Chris) Russ has been writing image processing and image analysis software since 1979. His undergraduate degree is in computer science from the University of Michigan, and he subsequently attended graduate school in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Presently, he owns Reindeer Graphics, Inc., a supplier of image processing and related software. He also works as a senior scientist on forensic imaging for Ocean Systems, Inc.