The initial idea behind EarthRef.org is the brain-child of Hubert and is closely related to the beginning of the Geochemical Earth Reference Model initiative of which he has been chair ever since. Under his continued enthusiasm EarthRef.org has developed into the versatile web portal it is today. His science interests are wide-ranging and include seamount geochemistry, volcanology, biomediation, paleomagnetism and information technology.

The main design, implementation, engineering and maintenance of EarthRef.org are Anthony's responsibilities. He combines his database work with science projects involving ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology, seamount geochemistry, information technology and software development. One of his main science objectives is to understand the "true" nature of intra-plate volcanism, normally explained by the now infamous "hotspot" hypothesis.

Rupert has a strong background in both electrical and computer engineering. From his extensive software arsenal he applies a mixture of Perl, JavaScript, Python and Oracle SQL in the coding of the EarthRef.org website and databases. He currently is also a Ph.D. student in the Jacob’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UCSD with an emphasis on Intelligent Systems, Robotics and Control.

Lots of data find their way into the EarthRef.org website and databases. Jake is our front man with regard to data entry for the Geochemical Earth Reference Model (GERM), the supervision of undergraduate students that help with scanning and data entry, and the final QA/QC of what ends up in our data holdings. To prevent Jake from spending his days in front of the computer, he also is responsible for the mineral separation that is an essential part of the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology projects carried out at Scripps.

Every graphical aspect you see on the EarthRef.org website has been designed by Patty. She brings to the EarthRef.org project a different background, with a strong interest in art history, creativity and design. To her the difficult task to capture our enormous data holdings in a pleasing and easy-to-use web interface.

The successful setup of the EarthRef.org website and databases would not have been possible without the IT expertise that John has provided ever since its onset in 1999. Even though the EarthRef.org website has matured considerably over the years, he is still actively involved in making any further development and maintenance of our web pages and databases as professional and efficient as possible.