Dr. Jones received his BSME in 1972 from Villanova University.
After working as a project engineer for Mobil Oil Corporation
in Paulsboro, New Jersey for 2-1/2 years, he studied at
University of Pennsylvania where he received his MSME and PhD
degrees in 1975 and 1981, respectively. While there, in
addition to masters and PhD research, he designed and built
the liquid-cooled solar heating system for the University's
SolaRow house on Spruce Street in Philadelphia which, until
very recently, was still producing solar heat and hot water
for the building.
He was a staff member with Los Alamos National Laboratory
(LANL) in New Mexico until 1987. His research activities
included experiments on double-diffusive convection in salt-gradient
solar ponds, transient natural convection in single-phase
thermosyphons, experiments and numerical analysis for turbulent
natural convection in buildings, and thermal analyses of
heat transfer problems using commercial CFD codes.
He supervised the construction and designed the instrumentation
for a 230 square meter salt-gradient solar pond; monitoring
and reporting the thermal performance for almost two years.
He initiated the effort at LANL for analytical and numerical
modeling of inter-zonal natural convection in buildings,
and performed advanced modeling of heat transfer and hydrodynamics
in hot-dry-rock geothermal reservoirs and modeling heat
transfer in cold-plate enclosures for cooling of electronic
components. Dr. Jones consulted with LANL on a wide
array of technical topics from 1990 until 2006.
Dr. Jones joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering
at Villanova University in Fall, 1987 where he is currently
professor. In 2008, after serving as department chairman
for six years, he assumed the position of Associate Dean,
Academic Affairs where, among other strategic tasks, he
is responsible for day-to-day running of the undergraduate
engineering program. His undergraduate teaching has included
numerous courses in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics,
analysis and design, and labs. His graduate courses
include heat conduction, convection, computational fluid
mechanics, advanced fluid mechanics, and solar energy utilization.
His research interests include heat transfer in composite
materials, high-performance heat exchangers for electronics
cooling, and thermal management for power production systems
such as fuel cells. His most recent research includes optimization
of multiscale thermal structures using the Constructal theory.
Dr. Jones is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers (ASME) and past president and secretary of the
Villanova Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.
He was faculty advisor to the ASME Student Section from
1996-2002 and was voted the 2002 ASME Student Section Advisor
Award for the Mid-Atlantic Region of ASME (43 schools).
He has served on the ASME K-20 Committee on Computational
Heat Transfer since 1998 and sponsored many technical sessions
at ASME conferences. He was active in the Philadelphia
Section of ASME and served the section as chairman in 2001-2002.
He has recently turned his attention to the Committee on
Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia
which selects annual Franklin Medal award winners.
At Villanova, he has chaired several prominent committees
including the College of Engineering Research Committee,
the College of Engineering Mathematics Competency Committee,
and the Department of Mechanical Engineering Laboratory
Committee. Dr. Jones is also a member of Phi Kappa
Phi and Pi Tau Sigma. He is a reviewer for the ASME
Journal of Heat Transfer, The International Journal of Heat
and Mass Transfer, Cryogenics, the ASME Journal of Solar
Energy Engineering, Energy-The International Journal, and
ASME and American Solar Energy Society Conferences.
He has taught several short courses including review courses
for the FEE examination in thermodynamics, heat transfer,
and fluid mechanics, and heat transfer for General Electric
Advanced Course at the former General Electric facility
in Moorestown, NJ. He has advised nearly 20 Masters
and PhD candidates, served on more than 35 MS and PhD thesis
committees, and has published more than 70 archival journal
and conference proceedings publications. His recent
book, Gravity-Driven Water Flow in Networks:
Theory and Design (Wiley, 2010) is an outgrowth of student-focused,
service-learning efforts in Central America begun in 2004
with colleagues in the ME Department at Villanova.
Dr. Jones is a married, father
of two adults. His hobbies include collecting and
repairing antique mechanical clocks, operating and maintaining
a 1988 Porsche 911 Carerra, fine wine, and enjoying a variety
of different types of music.
