Jodie Lutkenhaus
Jodie L. Lutkenhaus is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University who develops redox active polymers for energy storage and smart coatings. In 2019 Lutkenhaus and Karen L. Wooley demonstrated the world's first biodegradable peptide battery. Lutkenhaus is a World Economic Forum Young Scientist. Early life and education Lutkenhaus was inspired to study engineering by her mother and father, who studied chemistry and physics respectively. She studied chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and graduated in 2002. She moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After obtaining her doctoral degree there in 2007 under the supervision of Paula T. Hammond, Lutkenhaus moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and then in 2008 joined the faculty of Yale University. Research and career Lutkenhaus joined the faculty at Texas A&M University in 2010, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. She develops new materials for energy storage and smart coatings, including polyelectrolytes and redox active polymers. She aspires to develop soft and flexible power supplies for wearable electronics that are durable, sustainable and efficient. A challenge with using polymers in batteries is that they are typically poor at storing and exchanging electrons. Lutkenhaus has demonstrated that organic