As of 2020, Stephen J. Pyne (1949- ) is an American history and nonfiction author and emeritus professor at Arizona State University, specializing in environmental history, the history of exploration, and the history of fire. He obtained his bachelor's degree at Stanford University, and attended the University of Texas at Austin for his masters degree (1974) and doctor of philosophy (1976). From 1967 to 1981, Pyne worked as a wildland firefighter on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. He received an Antarctic Fellowship funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1981 to write a brief history of earth science exploration in the United States. Pyne spent three months in Antarctica, during the austral summer of 1981-1982. After returning from Antarctica, he started working at the University of Iowa, until 1985 when he took a position at Arizona State University. He began writing The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica shortly after starting at Arizona State. Published in 1986 by the University of Iowa Press, the book covers the history of the Antarctic geophysical landscape, with a primary focus on ice, as well as human assimilation and exploration of Antarctica, and its impact on the history of science and literature. Pyne retired from Arizona State University in 2018.

Dr. Jean de Pomereu was selected as the first recipient of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program (BPCRCAP) Research Award in 2018, with the goal of publishing a book about the scientific history of ice sheets. As of 2021, de Pomereu is an associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, and an independent historical geographer, curator, editor, and photographer focusing on the polar regions.