Thulstrup is professor of chemistry at Roskilde University, Denmark. He graduated from Aarhus University in 1967 with an MSc. in Chemistry and Physics and has held senior positions at 3 Danish universities and visiting positions at 6 foreign universities, interrupted by 5 years in Washington DC where he headed the World Bank Program for Science and Technology. He was President of the Danish UNESCO National Commission and leader of several major evaluations of research capacity building in developing and industrialized countries. He is author of numerous papers and leading monographs within Polarization Spectroscopy of ordered systems. He received the Knighthood of the Dannebrog by the Danish Queen, was a Fulbright Fellow, and received gold medals from Aarhus University, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Science Society of Panama. He is fellow of the African, Norwegian and Mongolian Academies of Science.