Dr. Jacob C. Lutter

Dr. Lutter began his career in chemistry at Shippensburg University in his native state of Pennsylvania. He graduated with Honors and Magna cum Laude in 2013. During his time at Ship he worked with Dr. Curt Zaleski on a fascinating class of coordination compounds known as metallacrowns, an introduction to a passion that would shape the course of his career. He was also heavily involved with orchestral and band programs. Prior to his graduation, he spent the summer of 2012 at James Madison University via the NSF-REU program. At JMU he worked with Dr. Yanjie Zhang on Hoffmeister cation effects on tricoblock polymers.

Having fallen head over heels for metallacrowns, he moved to Ann Arbor, MI to continue his study on these compounds with their founder, Dr. Vincent Pecoraro at the University of Michigan. During his time at U of M, Dr. Lutter worked on metallacrowns that sensitize emission of trivalent lanthanides, as well as spending time researching how pedagogical content knowledge is attained by graduate students with Dr. Ginger Shultz. Prior to graduation, he spent time abroad including one month visits with Drs. Stéphane Petoud and Svetlana Eliseeva at CNRS-Orléans (France), and with Dr. Matteo Tegoni at the University of Parma (Italy). He graduated from U of M in 2018, and stayed for the remainder of the year to complete a teaching postdoc.

In 2019, Dr. Lutter began a postdoc position with Dr. Matt Allen at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. Here he spent time working on divalent europium based compounds that were soluble in liquid perfluorocarbons. He also spent time building up his understanding of single-crystal X-ray diffraction and began his own independent research on metallacrowns with undergraduate research students. Dr. Lutter weathered the COVID-19 pandemic at WSU until he was hired by the University of Southern Indiana in 2022.

Now Dr. Lutter is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at USI. He routinely teaches general chemistry, inorganic chemistry, professional development seminars, and undergraduate research courses. Dr. Lutter is also a frequent sight at demonstration shows, often performing the department's famous trash can eruption. He is still an avid member of the metallacrown research community as well as a member of the American Chemical Society, IONIC VIPEr, and the Council of Undergraduate Research.