Lee Cone is an active member of GSA and the Paleontological Society, serving on two committees for PS. He actively is involved in research on fossil shark evolution and is currently working with the professional community in this endeavor. He is an avid diver and collector of fossils, and an expert on Carolina Fossils, as well as fossils of "Shark Tooth Hill” in Bakersfield, CA.. He has found many unique specimens in the Carolinas, including the “Cone Whale” on display at the Mace Brown Museum in Charleston, SC. He has also spoken at several professional conferences, NAPC and GSA events, and is a big supporter of the FOSSIL Project (U of Florida Paleontology). He was awarded the Katherine Palmer Award in 2023 from the Paleontological Research Institute.
Roger Farish is past president and a 30-year member of the Dallas Paleontological Society where he has edited most of their publications including their latest, described as ‘everything paleontology’. Guide to Fossil Collecting by the Dallas Paleontological Society is an attempt to cover all basic aspects of our favorite avocation. He recently wrote an article called "Wannabes" that was the result of years of answering the DPS Hot Line where people can request fossil IDs among other things. After more than 30 years of annual visits to the Tucson Gem/Mineral/Fossil Exhibition mostly as an observer of the treasures coming out of countries around the world, he has acquired considerable knowledge of our earth’s prehistory of life forms. A geophysicist by training applied to oil exploration with Geophysical Service Inc. then Mobil Oil. On loan from Mobil to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia 1980-1984. Coauthor of "Collectors’ Guide to Fossil Sharks and Rays from the Cretaceous of Texas". Before retirement in 2014, he spent the previous 20 years as an Investment Advisor and Financial Planner. He currently is field trip coordinator and general advisor to the Dallas Paleo Society.
Jim Mickle is a Professor at NC State University. His research has focused mainly on “whole-plant” taxonomy of fossil plants, conifer taxonomy and phylogeny, growth and development in fossil plant vegetative organs, angiosperm fossil fruits, taxonomy and biogeography of Carboniferous and Cretaceous plants, and cuticular micromorphology of living cycads. He has concentrated research on fossil plants from eastern North America and southern Europe, and has been involved in extensive museum work with the University of Naples Botanical Garden in Naples, Italy.
Michael Smith has been a member of Paleontological Society of Austin and its predecessors for over 30 years, serving variously as president, show chair, editor, webmaster, and treasurer. He is co-author of a guide to Pleistocene fossils found on the Brazos River. For many years he has volunteered at the Non-vertebrate Paleontology Lab at the University of Texas at Austin on a variety of projects including mass inventory, cabinet layout and installation, and georeferencing. The last consists of adding GPS coordinates to specimen records in the collection database based on location descriptions, some dating back to the 19th century. He particularly enjoys public outreach activities.