Jodie Lutkenhaus facts for kids

Jodie L. Lutkenhaus is a professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. She works on creating new materials for storing energy and making "smart" coatings. In 2019, Professor Lutkenhaus and Karen L. Wooley showed the world's first battery made from materials that can naturally break down, like a biodegradable battery! She is also recognized as a Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum.

Early Life and Education

Jodie Lutkenhaus was inspired to become an engineer by her parents. Her mother studied chemistry, and her father studied physics. She went to the University of Texas at Austin and earned her degree in chemical engineering in 2002.

After that, she continued her studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She received her advanced degree in 2007. Her advisor there was Paula T. Hammond. After MIT, Professor Lutkenhaus worked at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2008, she joined the teaching staff at Yale University.

Research and Career

Professor Lutkenhaus joined Texas A&M University in 2010. She became an Associate Professor in 2015. Her main work involves creating new materials for energy storage. These materials are also used for "smart coatings," which are like special paints that can do cool things. She works with materials called polyelectrolytes and redox active polymers.

Her big goal is to create soft and flexible power sources. Imagine batteries that can bend and stretch! These could be used in wearable electronics, like smartwatches or fitness trackers. She wants these power sources to be strong, good for the environment, and work very well.

Making Better Batteries

One challenge with using polymers (a type of plastic material) in batteries is that they are not usually good at storing and moving electrons. Electrons are tiny particles that carry electricity. Professor Lutkenhaus has shown that special polymers, called organic radical polymers, can move electrons quickly. This means they could help devices charge much faster!

She uses a special tool called an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance to study how fast these materials transfer energy. Her dream is for future batteries to be made without metals. She wants them to be organic (made from carbon-based materials) and easy to recycle. Right now, only a small amount of lithium-ion batteries are recycled.

In 2019, Professor Lutkenhaus and Professor Wooley made a big discovery. They showed that glutamic acid, which is found in proteins, could be used to make batteries. This was the first battery made entirely from biodegradable protein materials! These special protein parts contain compounds that can store and release energy.

Exploring New Materials

Professor Lutkenhaus also studies how thin films of polymers behave in small spaces. She is working on new materials called two-dimensional transition metal-carbon nanosheets, or MXenes. These are super-thin, sheet-like structures made from layers of ceramics. They can be mixed with different materials and have various uses.

She also looks at how the chemical structure of these materials affects their electronic properties. For example, she has shown that devices made from MXenes and polyelectrolytes can sense humidity and pressure. This is because water helps the charged molecules relax, reducing the force that holds them together.

Awards and Recognition

Professor Lutkenhaus has received many awards for her important work:

• 2011 National Science Foundation CAREER Award
• 2012 Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Young Faculty
• 2013 Air Force Research Laboratory Young Investigator Prize
• 2014 Kaneka Corporation Faculty Scholarship
• 2014 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award
• 2016 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Van Ness Lectureship
• 2018 American Chemical Society WCC Rising Star Award
• 2018 University of Notre Dame Thiele Lectureship
• 2018 Texas A&M University Presidential Impact Fellow
• 2019 Japanese-American-German Frontiers of Science Kavli Foundation Fellow
• 2019 World Economic Forum Young Scientist

Personal Life

Jodie Lutkenhaus is married to Ben Wilhite, who is also a chemical engineer and a professor at Texas A&M University. They have two sons. Her older sister, Jessica Winter, is also a scientist.

See also

In Spanish: Jodie Lutkenhaus para niños