Rudolf A. Raff, Elizabeth Raff, and Thomas Kaufman were colleagues and collaborators in the Indiana University Department of Biology, where they worked on evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo"). Their 1983 book Embryos, Genes, and Evolution, written by Rudolf Raff and Thomas Kaufman and illustrated by Elizabeth Raff, "anticipat[ed] the rise of evo-devo by a decade," per Raff's obituary in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Rudolf A. Raff and Elizabeth Raff both obtained their Bachelor of Science degrees at Pennsylvania State University, and were married in graduate school. They obtained their PhDs from Duke University, Rudolf in 1967 and Elizabeth in 1968. They joined what was then the Department of Zoology at Indiana University in 1971. Rudolf rose to the rank of Distinguished Professor in 2002. From 2002-2007, Elizabeth was the first woman chair of Biology at Indiana University. He retired in 2018, and she in 2019, both as Distinguished Professors Emeriti.

Thomas Kaufman is a geneticist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Biology. He obtained his PhD from the University of Texas in 1970 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia. He joined the Indiana University faculty in 1976. He has held the position of president at both the National Drosophila Board (1992) and the Genetics Society of America (1998). His research uses the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study the genetic basis of the developmental program of higher organisms.