Chris holds a BSE in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan (1995), an MS (1997) and PhD (1999) from Caltech. Subsequently, he studied organometallic chemistry and olefin polymerization under the direction of both Davis and John E. Bercaw at Caltech. He started as an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech in the summer of 2000 and was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2005. In May, 2005, he was appointed the J. Carl and Sheila Pirkle Faculty Fellow, followed by a promotion to Professor in July 2008. He was named New-Vision Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering in July 2011, with this position being created with the generous support of an anonymous donor. Most recently, Chris was named the Associate Vice President for Research at Georgia Tech.
Dr. Jones directs a vigorous research program focused primarily on catalysis and CO2 separation, sequestration and utilization. In 2010 he was honored with the Ipatieff Prize from the American Chemical Society for his work on palladium catalyzed Heck and Suzuki coupling reactions. That same year, he was selected as the founding Editor-in-Chief of ACS Catalysis, a new multi-disciplinary catalysis journal published by the American Chemical Society. In 2013, Chris was recognized by the North American Catalysis Society with the Paul E. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis and by the American Society of Engineering Education with the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award.