Maartje Stols-Witlox is project leader of Down to the Ground and one of three authors/editors of the project’s synthesizing volume. Stols studied art history (Leiden University) and conservation (SRAL Maastricht) and is currently associate professor paintings conservation at UvA Conservation & Restoration and director of this teaching programme. Her PhD focused on historical recipes for ground layers and was published as A Perfect Ground. Preparatory Layers for Oil Paintings 1550-1900  (London: Archetype, 2014).

Stols’ research focuses on historical artist materials  and recipes, and on their reconstruction. She is editor of Conservation 360° (book series, UVP Valencia), was affiliated to the Artechne - Technique in the Arts project (Utrecht University) and is a founding member of the RRR network (Reconstruction, Replication and Re-enactment in Humanities Research).

Moorea Hall-Aquitania investigates the spread of coloured grounds to the Netherlands between 1550-1650 and the artistic networks and mechanisms of knowledge transmission through which this spread occurred. Moorea received her BA in Art History and Italian from Vassar College (New York) and an MSc in Technical Art History from the University of Amsterdam. She was recently a Migelien Gerritzen fellow at the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), studying coloured grounds in the work of the Utrecht Caravaggisti and is now a Rijksmuseum Visiting Researcher. She is Assistant Editor for ArtMatters: International Journal for Technical Art History.

Lieve d’Hont investigates the role of the ground colour in the painting process and in the final appearance of Netherlandish paintings between 1550-1650. Lieve studied History of Art at Utrecht University (BA) and Conservation of Easel Paintings at the University of Amsterdam (MA and Post-MA). She completed internships at the SRAL (Maastricht), the Mauritshuis (The Hague) and a post-graduate internship at the Hamilton Kerr Institute (Cambridge, UK). Alongside conducting her PhD research, Lieve works part-time as freelance paintings conservator.

Michael Maria has conducted research in the field of Optical Instrumentation at the Delft University of Technology as a postdoctoral researcher. He studied Optics and Photonics sciences at University of Rennes I (MSc) and Optical Instrumentation for Biomedical Sciences (PhD) at University of Kent and at the Danish company NKT Photonics A/S. During his studies, Michael completed numerous internships, both in industrial and academic context, in different countries. Within Down to the Ground project, he was responsible for the development of the imaging instrument and he contributed to the field experiments.

Xiang Wang joined the Aerospace Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Laboratory at TU Delft as a PhD researcher, and subsequently was a postdoctoral researcher. His research interests are fibre optic sensing, light scattering and structural health monitoring. Within Down to the Ground, Xiang took over tasks from Michael Maria and worked in the development of the imaging instrument and was involved in measuring the optical properties of pigments in an oil medium.

Ella Hendriks is full Professor of Conservation and Restoration of Moveable Cultural Heritage at the University of Amsterdam and current Chair of the section. Trained as an art historian (Manchester University) and conservator of easel paintings (Hamilton Kerr institute, University of Cambridge) she was appointed Head of Conservation at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem (1987-1999), and Senior Paintings Conservator at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (1919-2016).

Erma Hermens is Director of the Hamilton Kerr Institute for Easel Painting Conservation and Deputy Director Conservation and Heritage Science at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK. She brings research teams together comprising (technical) art historians, conservators, scientists, working closely with Fitzwilliam curators and other Cambridge University Departments and Museums. From 2016-2022 she occupied the Rijksmuseum Chair for Studio Practice and Technical Art History, University of Amsterdam, and was a Rijksmuseum senior researcher.

Before Amsterdam, as associate professor at the University of Glasgow, she led the Technical Art History group in the Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History, and established the first European MA in Technical Art History. She is a founder and Co-Editor in Chief of ArtMatters: International Journal for Technical Art History. Although she specialises in Netherlandish and Italian 16^th-17^th century painting,  she has worked on materials and studio practice from other periods and disciplines and has over 25 years of experience, researching, publishing and lecturing in the interdisciplinary field of Technical Art History, on topics such as Knowledge exchange in 16^th-century Italian court workshops,  Rembrandt’s Entombment panel, scanning David Bailly’s Portrait of a young painter, to Matthijs Maris at Work and the use of Optical Coherence Tomography and nano indentation to understand 16^th-century recipes on the addition of glass to paint.

Roger Groves is Associate Professor in Aerospace NDT/SHM and Heritage Diagnostics at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. He has a PhD in Optical Instrumentation from Cranfield University, UK and worked as a Senior Researcher in the Institute for Applied Optics, University of Stuttgart, Germany before joining TU Delft in 2008. His research interests are in developing advanced optical and ultrasonic instrumentation for materials and structures measurement, in engineering and heritage applications. He is Head of the Groves Research group in Aerospace NDT/SHM at TU Delft and is responsible for a team of 20 researchers and students. He has more than 250 journal and conference publications and in 2019 was recognised as a Fellow of SPIE for his research in optics.

Elmer Kolfin is assistant professor art history at the University of Amsterdam. He specializes in Dutch art of seventeenth century on which he has published extensively. He has (co-)curated exhibitions at the Frans Hals Museum, Rembrandt House Museum, University Library of the University of Amsterdam and the Nieuwe Kerk. Kolfin is editor-in-chief of Oud Holland. Journal for Art of the Low Countries. His most recent publications are the edited volumeChance, strategy and success in the lives of Dutch artists  (Oud Holland  135, 2022, 2/3) and the book De Kunst van de macht. Jordaens, Lievens en Rembrandt in het Paleis op de Dam (Zwolle 2023).

Andrei Anisimov is involved into the development and testing of the optical instrumentation. Andrei obtained his MS and PhD degrees in optical engineering from University ITMO, Russia. In 2014 he joined the Aerospace Non-Destructive Testing Laboratory at TU Delft, now he is a Senior Researcher in Optical Metrology. His research interests include machine vision and laser interferometry techniques for high precision measurement and non-destructive testing of aerospace and civil engineering materials and structures.