1. A person with a joint share in or use of something; a person who is party to something. In early use: a  sharer or partaker (in or of something).

 

            a. A person who takes part with another or others in doing something; an associate, companion, or  accomplice; a participant (obs.).

 

            b. partner in crime, a (habitual) criminal accomplice. Also humorously in later use: one of a pair of people or things often associated or seen together.

 

3. A supporter; an adherent; spec. a worshipper. Obs.

 

 4. Business. Any of a number of individuals with interests and investments in a business or enterprise, among whom expenses, profits, and losses are shared.

 

 

 

(From Oxford English dictionary)

This is just a little greeting to all the persons I consider one way or another have made my research possible and/or have influenced my career, thanks a lot!!!!

 

*List have not hierarchy whatsoever...

 Jian-Hua Sun et al, Andrei Sourakov, Camilo Salazar , Edwin James, Edwin Jonson. Emigdio Guiza, Jaqueline Miller, Kari Ellison, Liz Patricia Moreno, Lyndall Brezina, Marcus Kronforst, Mary Christman, Mauricio Linares, Miriam Medina Hay-Roe, My Family et al, Natalia Giraldo Herrera, Peter Teal, Sanil  Kanjookaran, Tom Emmel, Vanesa Walthall, Charlie Covell, Marta Wayne, Edwin James, Edwin Johnson, Fazle, Keith Willmott, Peggy Brennan, Keith Willmott, Chava Weitzman, Alejandro Merchán, Moises, Mary Christman, Sergio Estrada, Stefan Schulz, Catalina Estrada, Susan Finkbeiner, Jian-Hua Sun