Mark Jones

Biography

  Mark Jones pretty much always knew he wanted to be a scientist.He was a kid who was always experimenting and studying his menagerie of rabbits, fish, snakes and turtles (“anything I was willing to take care of, no matter how much it grossed out my mother”). When he was in elementary school, he spent his winter break at his uncle and aunt’s house in Washington, D.C., where they visited the Smithsonian every day. He quickly outgrew chemistry sets, but that didn’t stop him from mixing up his own formulations from what would be considered hazardous materials today. He cringes and laughs now when he thinks of his unsuspecting deacon father buying a bulk quantity of muriatic acid from the hardware store at young Mark’s request – carted home in an old vodka bottle that he found discarded next to the store, no less! Creating Order from Nature's Chaos Mark’s passion then was largely the same as it is today – to understand and control the world around him – to “make order out of nature’s chaos.” His favorite part of his work has always been seeing a need and developing a way to meet that need. Yet he also appreciates the role chance plays in science – and admires Nobel Prize winner Tom Cech for admitting that his discovery of catalytic RNA was a “serendipitous observation.” Today, much of his workday is spent studying how chemistry can develop solutions for Earth’s dwindling resources. (“The goal is to leave as much of the stuff we have today for future generations.”) At home, he continues to tinker and build stuff – using a “really cool” welder and plasma cutter combo to weld together two kayak trailers and make a welded sculpture, which he first 3D modeled on a workstation he also built himself from an array of graphics processors. Recently he has started “playing” with electronics for home automation. He’ll always be grateful to his parents and extended family, who first fostered the curiosity that led to his exciting career. He advises today’s young scientists to learn as much as they can but don’t neglect culture, and “always give yourself time to just ponder.”

Research Interest