Hannes E. Leetaru is a Principal Research Geologist and Head of the Petroleum Geology Section at the Illinois State Geological Survey. He has worked in the field of CCUS for the last 20 years. He received his BS from SUNY at Fredonia, MS from Syracuse University of Illinois and his PhD from University of Illinois. He worked at Getty Oil Company and Union Pacific Resources and has over 40 years of experience in both academia and industry. He has been Principal Investigator on numerous government grants for CCUS research and has published extensively in this area.

Scott Frailey is a Principal Reservoir Engineer for the Illinois Geologic Survey, where he is involved with the technical aspects of the CO₂ storage and CO₂ EOR programs and provides technical expertise in the areas of reservoir characterization and engineering including pressure transient analyses, core analyses, well log analyses, and reservoir modeling. Previously, Scott was an associate professor of petroleum engineering at Texas Tech University and a reservoir engineer at BP Exploration (Alaska). He graduated from the University of Missouri-Rolla with B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in petroleum engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas, New Mexico, Illinois, and Indiana.

Sherilyn Williams-Stroud is a Research Scientist and Structural Geologist, at the Illinois State Geological Survey/University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her areas of expertise include structural and fracture analysis and modeling for oil and gas and geothermal energy production, with a specialization in microseismic data interpretation and induced seismicity. She received her MA and PhD from The Johns Hopkins University and her BA from Oberlin College and has over 25 years of experience in government and industry. In addition to teaching industry short courses, she has held adjunct positions at the University of Houston, California State U. Los Angeles and Northridge, and has been a full-time faculty member at Whittier College. She is an active member of several professional organizations, has been an AAPG Visiting Geoscientist since 2014, and is a member of the NASEM Committee on Seismology and Geodynamics.

Steve Whittaker is Director of Energy & Minerals, Illinois State Geological Survey, at the University of Illinois and leads a team researching carbon capture and storage, critical mineral resources, blue hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon utilization. Steve is Principal Investigator of the Illinois Storage Corridor project that will develop Class VI permits for two commercial CCS projects and is PI and Co-PI of two CarbonSAFE projects designed to lead to commercial deployment of CCS. Previously he was based in Australia where he was a Group Leader in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Global Storage Manager with the Global CCS Institute, and in Canada as Chief Technology Manager at the Petroleum Technology Research Centre where he led a large project on carbon storage associated with CO₂-EOR. He previously worked as an exploration geologist in western Canada. Steve has a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan and Post-Doctoral Fellowships at Queen’s University and McGill University.