[3] In 2003, he served as Principal Investigator and Science Director of the IMAX film Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, which included footage and research from his numerous expeditions to study an active deep-sea caldera on the East Pacific Rise, at depths of 2500 meters.

[7] In 1985, Lutz began serving as a chairman of the Planning and Search Committee for the then-envisioned Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS) at Rutgers.

[5] Two months later, IMCS was named the fourth top oceanographic institution in the world, based on a Reuters survey of paper citations since 2000 and impact on the marine sciences.

[2] Since that year, Lutz has continuously spent time in various deep-diving submersibles studying thermal vents throughout the world's oceans.

[1][5] In 1990, Lutz and Rutgers geneticist Bob Vrijenhoek embarked on a yearlong survey they dubbed a "Magical Mystery Tour" of most of the known hydrothermal vents and cold seeps in the eastern Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.

On August 12, 1991, Lutz, diver Randy Hinderer, and biologist Van Dover became trapped in the Alvin 100 miles off the coast of Oregon while searching for a deep-sea clam bed.

[8] In April 1991, Lutz joined a number of geological colleagues on an oceanographic expedition to explore an undersea eruption along the East Pacific Rise.

They used the deep-submergence vehicle Alvin to dive to the depth of a mile and a half, or 2500 meters into the caldera of the actively erupting volcanic ridge, the first time such an expedition had been attempted.

[1][7][5] Lutz has since returned to the caldera at what are approximately annual expeditions to document the significant biological and geological changes at the site.