After studying statistics and mathematics at the University of Munich and obtaining his doctoral degree from the University of Dortmund, Andreas Ziegler received the Johann-Peter-Süssmilch-Medal of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology for his post-doctoral work on 'Model Free Linkage Analysis of Quantitative Traits' in 1999. In 2004, he was one of the recipients of the Fritz-Linder-Forum-Award from the German Association for Surgery.

Andreas Ziegler is head of the Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics at the University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein in Lubeck, an acknowledged center of excellence for genetic epidemiological methods. Currently he is President of the German Region of the International Biometric Society.

Inke R. Konig studied psychology at the universities of Marburg (Germany) as a scholar of the German National Academic Foundation and Dundee (Scotland) with a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She has done research work at the Institute of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology in Marburg and since 2001 at the Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics in Lubeck. In 2004, she became vice director of the latter and also received the Fritz-Linder-Forum-Award from the German Association for Surgery. Besides holding the certificate 'Biometrics in Medicine', she has collected teaching experience since 1998 as a lecturer for biomathematics, behavioural genetics, clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and evidence-based medicine.

Friedrich Pahlke is Dipl. Inf. at the Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics at the University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein in Lubeck. He has created the e-learning course which is optionally available with the book.