The Department of Energy has awarded a $1.3 million grant ($443,709 to our lab) supporting collaborative research between our group, Lee Thompson's group at the University of Louisville, and Caroline Chick Jarrold's lab at Indiana University. This grant (award number DE-SC0024282) supports experimental and theoretical characterization of the electronic structures of clusters of lanthanide and mixed lanthanide materials (oxides, borides, nitrides). The hypothesis driving this project is that the electronic and magnetic states of homo- and hetero-metallic lanthanides in clusters, oxides, borides, and nitrides can be controlled through interactions with free electrons, modeling the control of the properties in single molecule magnets and devices through electronics. Expected outcomes include determining new electronic structures and magnetic properties of homo- and hetero-metallic oxide, boride, and nitride clusters using synergistic experiments and theoretical methods, development of new theoretical approaches for treating exceptionally complex electronic structures, and determining intrinsic properties of bare clusters that will inform design of new lanthanide-based single-molecule magnets and related materials. This work is co-funded by Basic Energy Sciences' Gas Phase Chemical Physics (GPCP) and Chemical Theory and Computation (CTC) programs.