Stefan Klein (born October 5, 1965) is a physicist, author and essayist who has specialized in writing on science and its social implications in an accessible manner. He is best known for his books The Science of Happiness and Time: A User's Guide. His works have been translated into 25 languages and became best sellers in many countries.

Klein was born in Munich, Germany. Both his parents were chemists and had immigrated from Austria; their ancestors had been scientists for three generations. Klein studied physics and analytical philosophy at the University of Munich and Grenoble and graduated in theoretical biophysics at the University of Freiburg, Germany. He left his academic career to become science editor at Der Spiegel, a newsmagazine, in 1996, and made quickly made a name for himself through a series of ten highly regarded cover stories. He was awarded the Georg von Holtzbrinck Preis, a prestigious German prize for science writing in 1998. After a stint at Geo, a popular scientific magazine, he has worked as a freelance author since 2000.

Joachim Gauck pronounced [joːˈʔaxiːm ɡaʊ̯k] (born 24 January 1940 in Rostock) is the current President of Germany (since 18 March 2012). A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany.

During the Peaceful Revolution, he was a co-founder of the New Forum opposition movement in East Germany, which contributed to the downfall of the Soviet-backed dictatorship of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). In 1990 he served as a member of the only freely elected People's Chamber for the Alliance 90. Following German reunification, he was elected by the Bundestag as the first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives, serving from 1990 to 2000. As Federal Commissioner, he earned recognition as a "Stasi hunter" and "tireless pro-democracy advocate," exposing the crimes of the former communist secret police.

He was nominated as the candidate of the SPD and the Greens for President of Germany in the 2010 election, but narrowly lost to Christian Wulff, the candidate of the government coalition. His candidacy was met by significant approval of the population and the media; Der Spiegel described him as "the better President" and the Bild called him "the president of hearts." After Christian Wulff had stepped down, Gauck was elected President with 991 of 1228 votes in the Federal Convention in the 2012 election, as a nonpartisan consensus candidate of the CDU, the CSU, the FDP, the SPD and the Greens.

Patrick Bartley (24 March 1909 – 25 June 1956) was a British coal miner, civil servant and politician. He served as Labour Party Member of Parliament for Chester-le-Street from 1950 until his early death.

Bartley was born in Washington, then in County Durham. He went to St Joseph's Elementary School in the town, leaving at the age of 14 to become a coalminer. He spent his spare time studying, and in 1930 he was accepted for a two-year course at the Catholic Workers' College, which was attached to the University of Oxford.

From 1933 Bartley was Branch Secretary of the Mineworkers' union at his pit. He also became active in politics in the Labour Party, and in 1934 was elected to Washington Urban District Council. In 1937 he was elected instead to Durham County Council, on which he served for 12 years. He also acted as agent to Jack Lawson, the Labour Member of Parliament for Chester-le-Street.

In 1942, Bartley left the coal face to become Assistant Labour Director at the Northern "B" Region of the Ministry of Fuel and Power. When the coal mines were nationalised in 1947, he became Conciliation Officer for the National Coal Board Northern Division.