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Curt Wentrup was born in Denmark and educated at the University of Copenhagen (Cand. Scient. 1966 with Prof. K. A. Jensen; DSc 1976), and the Australian National University, Canberra (PhD 1969 with Prof. W. D. Crow). After postdoctoral work with Prof. H. Dahn at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, and a junior faculty position at the same institution, he was appointed professor of organic chemistry at the Universität Marburg (1976–85) before taking up the Chair of Organic Chemistry at The University of Queensland in 1985. In 2008 he was appointed Emeritus Professor at The University of Queensland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2000, and received the Centenary Medal of the Australian Commonwealth in 2001. He serves or has served on the editorial or advisory boards of a number of journals and has been the organizer or co-organizer of numerous national and international conferences and symposia, including the well-known Heron Island Conferences on Reactive Intermediates and Unusual Molecules. He collaborates extensively with groups in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Singapore, and Switzerland. His research interests are in the field of reactive intermediates, particularly nitrenes, carbenes, zwitterions, and ylides (R-:N:, R₂C:, and R-CN(⁺)-X^–) and cumulenes (ketenes, ketenimines, and iminopropadienones RN=C=C=C=O). This research employs flash vacuum thermolysis (FVT), photochemistry, matrix isolation, and in recent years has included microwave-induced thermal chemistry as an alternative to FVT. This technique offers much potential for the application of reactive intermediates in organic synthesis.