A.J.S. (Sam) Spearing is a Professor in the School of Mines at the China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT). Before that, he was the Director of the Western Australian School of Mines in Kalgoorlie and is active in rock mechanics, mine design, safety and support research. He has co-invented several support products commonly used in tabular mining operations. He has been in academia for about 14 years and was associated directly in the mining industry before that. He is the author of several books and book chapters and has authored over 55 peer-reviewed papers.

Liqiang Ma is a Professor in the School of Mines at CUMT. He is the Deputy Dean of the School of Mines and is active in water conservation mining, ground control, mine design and rock mechanics research. He has been in academia for about 16 years. He is the author of several books and book chapters and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers. He spent a year at Penn State University as a visiting scholar from 2015 to 2016. His main research work is associated with mining methods (especially water conservation mining and ground control, including ground-breaking research in rockburst precursors. He was selected as "Outstanding Talents of the New Century" by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Cong-An Ma is an Associate Professor in the School of Mines at CUMT. Before that, he was a senior engineer at the ChangSha Institute of Mining Research. He is active in hard rock mining methods, mine rehabilitation and rock pass control theory research for the sublevel caving mining method. He has been in academia for about 12 years and was associated with copper mining industry before that. He is the author of two books and book chapters and has authored about 30 peer-reviewed papers. He spent a year at the University of California Riverside as a visiting scholar from 2014 to 2015.

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