Jon was born and raised in Brookings, SD, where his interest in chemistry was first piqued by a high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Chad Caldwell, at Brookings High School. An avid rock climber, he went on to receive his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Wyoming, which provided an optimal balance between scholastic challenge and outdoor opportunity. During this time, Jon discovered his gusto for inorganic and organometallic chemistry working in the lab of Professor Elliott Hulley and as an NSF-REU Fellow with Professor Janis Louie at the University of Utah. 

After graduating from the University of Wyoming in 2017, Jon enjoyed a brief stint as a post-baccalaureate researcher synthesizing covalent organic frameworks with Professors John Hoberg and Bruce Parkinson. He then moved to the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, where he worked with Professor Alexandra Velian as an Alvin L. Kwiram Graduate Research Fellow. In Alexandra’s lab, Jon developed a new class of ligand-stabilized, atomically-precise M/Co/Se clusters featuring three discrete “active sites” dispersed on an inorganic Co/Se support. He leveraged this platform to study the subtle interplay between substrate, active site, and support, as well as complex multi-active site interactions that unfold during catalysis, thereby furthering Muetterties’ “clusters as surfaces” analogy.

After receiving his Ph.D. in 2023, Jon joined the lab of Professor Yogesh Surendranath at MIT as an MIT Energy Initiative Postdoctoral Scholar. At MIT, Jon investigated electrochemical methods for dispersion of molecular active sites on electrode supports and conducted voltammetry to probe how active site structure influences speciation and mechanism during CO2 electroreduction catalysis. 

In the Summer of 2025, Jon launched his independent career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at Cornell University. His group conducts interdisciplinary research leveraging techniques from synthetic and physical inorganic chemistry and electrochemistry to garner molecular-level insights into the coordinative dynamics occurring along heterogeneous interfaces. This includes the design of molecular model systems that “capture” the catalytic active site, as well as the elucidation of elementary processes involved in material nucleation, growth, and corrosion. Broadly speaking, his aim is to map out the coordination chemistry of the molecule-material interface in order to access sustainable solutions in catalysis, electronics, and separations. In his spare time, Jon enjoys sipping barrel-aged stouts, streaming KEXP, strumming his acoustic guitar, and clambering around on rocks.