He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine (2000) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley (2005) under the guidance of Prof. T. Don Tilley. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Prof. Daniel E. Morse at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he began his independent career in 2007. The Brutchey group focuses on the design of rational synthetic routes to inorganic nanocrystals for use in solar energy conversion and energy storage applications. Prof. Brutchey was named a Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 2010.