7th Heron Island Conference on Reactive Intermediates and Unusual Molecules

Curt Wentrup FAA, FRACI, is Professor Emeritus of Organic Chemistry at The University of Queensland. His research interest is in the field of reactive intermediates and unusual molecules using photochemistry, flash vacuum pyrolysis, matrix isolation, and computational chemistry. He is a recipient of the Centenary Medal of the Australian Commonwealth, the David Craig Medal of the Australian Academy of Science, the Arthur J. Birch Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, a doctor scientiarum from the University of Copenhagen, and a doctor honoris causa from the Université de Pau, France.

Craig M. Williams was born in Adelaide, Australia. He received his B.Sc. (Hons) degree in chemistry in 1994, and in 1997 was awarded his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Flinders University under the supervision of Professor Rolf H. Prager. He worked as an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Armin de Meijere at the Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany, until 1999 and then took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian National University with Professor Lewis N. Mander. Professor Williams has held an academic position at The University of Queensland since 2000 and during this time has won a number of awards, including a Thieme Chemistry Journals Award in 2007. The primary research focus of the Williams group is the construction and isolation of biologically active complex natural products, and designing methodology to assist in that endeavour. The group also enjoys exploring medicinal, physical organic, and computational chemistry of natural and non-natural compounds.