Stefanie Rudolf studied Semitic languages, German philology and Islamic studies at the Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen. She wrote her masters on the problem and possibility of dating the literature of the Old Testament exemplified by the Song of Songs. She received her M.A.-degree in 2010.
In her doctoral thesis she seeks to follow the traces of the old mesopotamian astral sciences into the pre- and early Islamic-Arabic world, respectively the very period preceding the flourishing of  the great translation movement in Baghdad. The analysis concentrates on the transfer of sciences from Mesopotamia to the Arabic peninsula focusing the notion, the rituals of worship and observation of the stars, which left their imprints both on the diverse branches of oriental literary traditions and the material culture.

Jürgen Renn, since 1994 director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (Department 1), is one of Topoi’s principal investigators and spokesman of Area E (together with Ernst Osterkamp). His research focuses on: structural changes in systems of knowledge in the natural sciences; comparative studies of the emergence and development of mechanical thinking; epistemic history of architecture; history of early modern science; history of relativity and quantum physics; development of electronic research infrastructures. Prof. Renn is Honorary Professor for History of Science at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin. He is also Adjunct Professor for Philosophy and Physics at Boston University and member of various national and international Scientific Advisory and Editorial Boards. Since 2005 he is a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, Leopoldina.