About Theodor Curtius
Geheimrat Julius Wilhelm Theodor Curtius (27 May 1857 – 8 February 1928) was professor of Chemistry at Heidelberg University. He published the Curtius rearrangement in 1890/1894 and also discovered diazoacetic acid, hydrazine and hydrazoic acid. In 1882 he carried out the first ever peptide synthesis, creating the N-protected dipeptide, benzoylglycylglycine. == History == Theodor Curtius was born in Duisburg in the Ruhr area in Germany. He studied chemistry with Robert Bunsen at Heidelberg University and with Hermann Kolbe at Leipzig University. He received his doctorate in 1882 at Leipzig University. After working from 1884 to 1886 for Adolf von Baeyer at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Curtius became the director of the analytical chemistry department at University of Erlangen until 1889. Then he accepted the chair in Chemistry at Kiel University, where he remained very productive. In line with this success, Curtius was appointed Geheimer Regierungsrat (Privy Councillor) in 1895. After a one-year appointment as the successor of the famous August Kekulé at the University of Bonn in 1897, Curtius succeeded Victor Meyer as Professor of Chemistry at his old university at Heidelberg University in 1898, where he remained until his retirement in 1926.
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