John Grutzner - Office of Professional Practice - Purdue University

Grutzner was raised in Melbourne, Australia. He became interested in chemistry while he was in high school. His teacher said, “Take science — you can learn humanities later.” Grutzner went on to study chemistry at the University of Melbourne and received his bachelor’s degree in 1962. He continued studies at Melbourne, and he completed his PhD in 1967.

Grutzner held post-doctoral appointments at UCLA and Cal Tech. In 1969, he was appointed assistant professor of chemistry at Purdue University. He was promoted to associate professor in 1974. In 1981, he served as a program officer in chemical dynamics at the National Science Foundation. Three years later, Grutzner served as chairman of the Purdue section of the American Chemical Society. He was also the recipient of the Martin Award for Outstanding Chemistry Teaching in 1988, the same year he became full professor. Grutzner has spent much of his career researching physical organic chemistry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. One of his accomplishments was identifying a new relaxation pathway for high Z nuclei.

Purdue experience

Grutzner became Co-op coordinator for the chemistry department in 1984 and continued to assist students until his retirement in 2012.