ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) was developed to be a free, unique identifier for scholarly publishing. It eliminates the ambiguity that can happen with author names or groups, and it allows researchers to easily find their published works in the various databases and publishing collections on the Internet. Most of the leading universities and research institutions support and encourage the use of ORCID for their scholarly publications.
Registering for an ORCID is free and just requires your first and last name and your primary e-mail. After that you will choose your notification and visibility settings and you're all set!