About Jim Hutchison — Since beginning his independent research and teaching career at the University of Oregon in 1994, Jim Hutchison has harnessed the power of chemistry to produce new materials and useful products. He led a productive and well-funded research program for more than 25 years and co-founded his own company (Dune Sciences, that spun up the Defunkify brand) based on his cutting-edge green chemistry research. He has also pioneered numerous innovative education programs.

In his research, Hutchison and his team harnessed molecular-level design to discover and build particles that are thousands of times smaller than human hair, called nanoparticles. Hutchison pioneered atom-by-atom nanoparticle assembly, creating precisely tailored materials for use in applications such as electronics, medical devices, and athletic apparel. Concerns that these new nanoparticles might pose harm to human health and the environment led Hutchison to invent green chemistry principles for safer nanomaterial development and consumer products. He founded the world’s first center for greener nanoscience, the Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative, an initiative aimed to help promote environmental and human safety with nanomaterials. He has co-authored several reports of the National Academy of Sciences defining research needs for greener nanotechnology, published more than 160 scientific papers, and won numerous national awards.

Hutchison has also been instrumental in developing new undergraduate and graduate training programs designed to prepare students to solve important societal problems using chemistry. He developed the first environmentally friendly organic chemistry laboratory curriculum, co-authored the first textbook in this area, and trained over 100 universities around the nation to adopt the new curriculum. Hutchison is also a champion of experiential and immersive graduate education programs, emphasizing guided, hands-on learning to develop problem-solving skills. His efforts include the development of what has become the UO’s Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program, an accelerated master's degree program that combines lab and lecture content with a 9-month paid internship, the development of the Knight Campus’ innovative Bioengineering PhD program and the Campus’ Bioengineering minor. Most recently, he launched the Knight Campus Brewing Innovation Lab which leverages science and engineering, history, innovation, and storytelling to teach the craft and science of brewing.