Duofu Chen is a full professor of Marine Geology in the College of Marine Sciences at Shanghai Ocean University. Duofu Chen received his Ph.D. in Geochemistry from Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he was hired as a full professor in 1998. He moved to Shanghai Ocean University in 2016 and established the research group of submarine cold seeps and gas hydrates. He created the term '' ('cold seep' of Chinese) in 2002 and published first paper on South China Sea seep in international journal Marine and Petroleum Geology in 2005. He published over 100 peer-reviewed papers during last 20 years that mainly focused on submarine cold seeps and gas hydrates. Duofu was awarded National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2007.

His studies have combined geochemical analyses and modeling technique to reveal the dynamics of methane hydrates in marine sediment and formation of mineral precipitates at seeps. Dong Feng is a full professor of Marine Geology and Geochemistry at Shanghai Ocean University. His research focuses on understanding the biogeochemical processes and geological records of submarine hydrocarbon seeps. Dong received his Ph.D. in Geochemistry from Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (2008). He was a post-doctoral fellow at Louisiana State University, USA (2008-2012). He became a full professor at South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2012.

He moved to Shanghai Ocean University in 2019. He has published over 90 articles, with most focused-on submarine hydrocarbon seeps, especially the ones in the South China Sea.