James Reuther

James Reuther is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he has led an independent research group since Fall 2018. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry (North Carolina State University, 2014) and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Supramolecular and Peptide Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin (2018).

• Education:
  • Ph.D., Polymer Chemistry, North Carolina State University (2014)
  • Postdoc, Supramolecular Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin (2018)
  • B.S., Chemistry (with Mathematics minor), Virginia Tech (2010)

Dr. Reuther's research lies at the intersection of organic, polymer, materials, and nanochemistry. His work focuses on:

• Developing dynamically crosslinked nanoparticle networks for regenerable water treatment.
• Creating scalable helical polymer nanostructures for enantiomeric separations and chiral plasmonic materials.
• Exploring dynamic covalent chemistry for abiotic quaternary structure formation.
• Designing multi-responsive nanogels with TORC core-crosslinks for controlled release.

His recent publications highlight advancements in nanoparticle networks for PFAS/microplastics removal (2025), chiral nanostructures via asymmetric PI-CDSA (2023), and oxime-functionalized nanofabrics for nerve agent decontamination (2023).

Dr. Reuther teaches:

• Organic Chemistry I (Fall semesters).
• Graduate-level laboratory course on Polymer Preparation and Characterization (POLY 5050).

His lab trains researchers in:

• Living polymerization techniques (RAFT, ATRP, PISA).
• Advanced characterization methods (GPC, MALDI, NMR, TGA, DSC).
• Nanomaterial synthesis and functionalization.
• Environmental and biomedical applications.