Gilda Lopeshttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6866-5127,^1,* Gunn Mangerud,^1,** Geoff Clayton<sup>2,***

1</sup>aDepartment of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
²bDepartment of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

^*Gilda Lopes has currently finished her four-year post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Bergen, Norway. Gilda is a biostratigrapher with specialization in palynology. Since her Ph.D., she has acquired palynological expertise from different regions of the world (Portugal, Mozambique, Norway) covering a broad time span, Her research focuses on the application of palynostratigraphy and geochemical proxies for age constraints, correlations, and characterization of palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic features through time and space. Gilda finished her Ph.D. in 2013, at the University of Algarve (UAlg), Portugal, and started working as a research collaborator in a geological study involving the Permian successions of Mozambique at the same university. In May 2014 she moved to Norway, where she started her fully funded post-doctoral project entitled “Early Carboniferous Biostratigraphy of the Barents Sea, Norwegian Arctic.”
^**Gunn Mangerud is a professor in biostratigraphy/ palynology at the Department of Earth Science at the University of Bergen (UoB), Norway. Her main research interests are the Triassic, Permian and Carboniferous successions of the Arctic, with a main focus on dating, correlation and the paleoenvironmental development. Gunn started her career as a researcher at IKU, SINTEF in Trondheim. In 1993, she moved to Bergen and started work as a geologist and a biostratigrapher at Norsk Hydro, holding different positions within the research, exploration and reservoir technology divisions. After leaving Norsk Hydro in 2004 she became CEO for the National Center Internationalization in HE. Gunn moved to her current position at UoB in 2009, allowing her to return to palynological research, alongside being Head of the Department for 8 years (2009–2017). She is currently a visiting professor at Universidad de Concepción, Chile.
^***Geoff Clayton is Visiting Professor of Palynology at the University of Sheffield, formerly Professor of Geology at Trinity College, University of Dublin. His research interests are Devonian and Carboniferous palynology, palynostratigraphy, palynofacies, palaeogeography and thermal maturation studies. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and was awarded the AASP – The Palynological Society Medal of Excellence in Education in 2016.