Professor Sharon Jones Becomes Director of the Engineering Division

She will begin a three-year term starting Aug. 1

Sharon A. Jones, professor of civil and environmental engineering and chair of Engineering Studies, has taken on the role of Director of the Engineering Division. She will begin a three-year term starting Aug. 1.

Jones’ teaching interests include courses in engineering policy, environmental engineering, and engineering design. In her current research, she develops and applies decision-making methods to minimize environmental impacts, with a particular focus on infrastructure systems and specific industrial systems. Along with co-principal investigators, she has received over $1.4 million of research funding from a variety of organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA, among others.

Jones is also involved with efforts to promote engineering education scholarship, diversity in the engineering profession, and service learning. She is active with the College’s Engineers Without Borders student chapter that works with villagers in rural Honduras to implement clean water projects and continues to work on infrastructure projects for Native American communities in the southwest.

Jones received the Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006 and the Association of Black Collegians Faculty Recognition Award in 2004. Among her recent national awards include the Higher Education Excellence Award from the National Society of Professional Engineers (2007), a Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Environmental Science and Engineering Professors (2006), and the Indian Health Service Tribal/Urban Recognition Award (2003). Jones is returning from a yearlong sabbatical leave at Princeton University’s Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Program where she was a Senior Research Scholar.

Jones received a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, a master’s of engineering in civil engineering from the University of Florida, and a B.S. in civil engineering from Columbia University. She is a licensed civil engineer and a licensed environmental engineer in several U.S. states.

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