Victor V. Kotlyar is Head of the Laboratory at Image Processing Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, a branch of the Federal Scientific Research Center "Crystallography and Photonics", and Professor of Computer Science at Samara National Research University, Russia. He earned his MS, PhD, and DrSc degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Samara State University (1979), Saratov State University (1988), and Moscow Central Design Institute of Unique Instrumentation, the Russian Academy of Sciences (1992). He is a SPIE- and OSA-member. He is coauthor of 400 scientific papers, 7 books, and 7 inventions. His current interests are diffractive optics, gradient optics, nanophotonics, and optical vortices. Alexey A. Kovalev graduated in 2002 from Samara National Research University, Russia, majoring in Applied Mathematics.

He earned his PhD in Physics and Maths in 2012. He is senior researcher of Laser Measurements at the Image Processing Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, a branch of the Federal Scientific Research Center "Crystallography and Photonics". He is a co-author of more than 270 scientific papers. His research interests are mathematical diffraction theory, photonic crystal devices, and optical vortices. Anton G. Nalimov graduated from Samara State Aerospace University, Russia, in February 2003. He entered postgraduate study in 2003 with a focus on the specialty 05.13.

18 "Mathematical Modeling and Program Complexes". He finished it in 2006 with the specialty 01.04.05 "Optics". Nalimov works in the Technical Cybernetics department at Samara National Research University as an associate professor, and also works as a scientist in the Image Processing Systems Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, a branch of the Federal Scientific Research Center "Crystallography and Photonics" in Samara. He is a PhD candidate in Physics and Mathematics, co-author of 200 papers and 3 inventions.