The extinction curves of star-forming regions from

Studies of extinction curves provide insights into the properties of interstellar dust. Until recently, however, very few extinction curves existed outside the local group. GRB afterglows are well suited to extinction studies due to their brightness, simple power-law spectra and their occurrence in distant star forming galaxies. In this paper we present results from the SED analysis of a sample of 41 GRB afterglows, from X-ray to NIR wavelengths. The sample is based on spectra from VLT-FORS, with additional data primarily from Swift. This is the largest sample of extinction curves outside the Local Group and, to date, the only extragalactic sample of absolute extinction curves based on spectroscopy. Estimates of the distribution of restframe visual extinctions, the extinction curves, and the intrinsic spectral shapes of GRB afterglows are obtained. Their correlation with H