Dr. Cutler currently serves as the Vice President for Economic Development for the University of South Carolina and as the Dean of the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy after having served 1 year as the Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost (2021-22). Before that, he served as the Dean and Professor of the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy for 5 years.
Dr. Cutler earned his B.S. degree in 1984 and his Ph.D. degree in 1989 from the University of Georgia. He has been a pharmacy educator for more than 30 years having served at the schools of pharmacy for Ohio Northern University, Mercer University, the University of Mississippi and the University of South Carolina. During that time, he received 10 teaching awards and recognitions from various classes of students.
Dr. Cutler is a broadly trained natural products medicinal chemist and behavioral pharmacologist whose research focuses on the isolation of natural products, design of new leads, synthesis of biological active derivatives, and the discovery and development of drugs to treat various disorders, including those of the central nervous system (CNS). He is a world expert on plants acting on the CNS including marijuana, Kratom, and other psychotropic plants.
During his career, Dr. Cutler has received more than $40,000,000 from various federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DoD), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He is the author or co-author of 50 patents (US and international), 135 peer-reviewed publications, 3 books, 21 book chapters, 40 published abstracts, and 201 scientific presentations.
In 2022, Dr. Cutler was recognized with the James E. Wynn Memorial Award by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s Chemistry Section, which recognizes members for gifted teaching, positive energy, honor, visionary academic skills, genuine caring for colleagues and strong mentoring for students. In 2023, he received the Pinnacle Award for Individual Contribution to the Life Sciences in South Carolina from the SCBio.