New Year Editorial 2014

Curt Wentrup was educated at the University of Copenhagen (Cand. Scient. 1966; D.Sc. 1976) and the Australian National University (Ph.D. 1969). After post-doctoral periods with Hans Dahn (Lausanne), W. M. Jones (Gainesville, FL), and Maitland Jones, Jr (Princeton), he held an assistant professorship at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, and a professorship at the Universität Marburg, Germany, before returning to Australia in 1985 as Professor and chair of organic chemistry and head of the organic chemistry section at the University of Queensland, where he is now Emeritus Professor. Since 2008, he has been the editor-in-chief of the Australian Journal of Chemistry, and since 2009 chair (now immediate-past chair) of the National Committee for Chemistry of the Australian Academy of Science. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and has published over 300 research papers. His interests are in the fields of both experimental and computational chemistry of reactive intermediates and unusual molecules using photochemistry, flash vacuum thermolysis, and microwave-induced chemical reactions; in particular, chemistry of nitrenes, carbenes, nitrile ylides, and nitrile imines, pericyclic rearrangements of cyanates, isocyanates, thio- and isothiocyanates, and nitrile oxides and sulfides, and the chemistry of extended cumulenes. He collaborates extensively with groups in Australia and Europe, and frequently holds visiting professorships in Europe.

Dr Anastasios (Tash) Polyzos was awarded his Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry in 2005 by La Trobe University and appointed as Research Fellow at CSIRO in the same year. In 2008, he pursued post-doctoral research studies at the University of Cambridge under the guidance of Professor Steven V. Ley, FRS, investigating the synthesis of complex targets using multi-step flow chemistry methods. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO. His research interests include the development of new methods and enabling technologies for organic synthesis, catalysis, reaction discovery, and the development of sustainable industrial process chemistry. Tash has been appointed to the positions of Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe University, Senior Member at Robinson College, Cambridge, UK, and Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Charlotte Conn obtained B.A. and M.Sc. degrees in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge (2002), and a Ph.D. in 2007 from Imperial College, London, for research in biophysical chemistry. She joined CSIRO in 2006 as a post-doctoral research fellow and is currently a Research Scientist at CSIRO. Her research interests focus on the high-throughput design and structural characterization of new lipidic materials, and the application of these materials in membrane protein crystallization and drug delivery, and as MRI contrast agents. She has extensive experience in the use of synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and is a current member of the SAXS Proposal Advisory Committee for the Australian Synchrotron.