Hutchison: Runner, green chemist and skier
UO chemist Jim Hutchison -- before green chemistry and nanotechnology seeped into his mind -- used to run barefoot in the dunes along the Oregon coast near Florence, with visions of UO running legend Steve Prefontaine in his head.
That was in middle school. Hutchison continued running, as a track and cross-country competitor, 1981-83, at the University of Washington and University of Oregon. Then in 10-K and half marathons during graduate school at Stanford University.
"I think the biggest thing that I took away from my athletic experience is the importance of having passion for what you want to achieve," Hutchison says. "That passion fuels the extra effort, patience, persistence and endurance needed to excel academically as well as athletically. My athletic experience also taught me to convert ‘setbacks’ into ‘inspiration’ to improve and grow -- lessons that have proven valuable ever since."
Today, Hutchison is the Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry at the UO and director of the Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute. He is a nationally recognized leader in the promotion of using green-chemistry principles in nanotechnology. Green chemistry pursues methods that reduce or recycle undesirable chemicals in the production of the products needed by society. The goal is sustainability.
He has carried the "green" message to lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and his efforts can be seen in the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act as revised in 2008. He also developed one of the first green-chemistry laboratory courses in the United States -- now a model for other institutions.
"Even though I participated in sports that are typically thought of as individual sports, the opportunity to train with other athletes with lofty goals is inspiring and instills a desire to excel," Hutchison says. "These types of sports mirrored the classroom, in a sense, in my chemistry courses we all worked hard to together, while each striving to achieve the highest score.
"Competing at the championship level such as the Rose Bowl is such a rare and important opportunity. Although I didn’t compete at the championship level in college, I did have the opportunity to do so in high school, and it helped me to see the importance of competing at the top level -- to test yourself against the best, to fulfill a childhood dream, to see the culmination of years of effort."
For the last 25 years, when not in the lab or fulfilling administrative duties, Hutchison has mastered Telemark skiing, a downhill competition in which a skier's boots connect to the skis only at the toes, providing a "free-heel" ride where turning is a big challenge. The technique is named after the Telemark region of Norway.
Hutchison and his wife Julie Haack, assistant head and senior instructor in the UO's chemistry department, have even put chemistry into skiing. They developed a Freshman Interest Group course, the Chemistry of Skiing. Haack also is a promoter of green-chemistry; she led the development of an internationally used database, Greener Education Materials for Chemists, known as GEMs.
