Rate My Professor Gordon Jones

Gordon Jones is the Stone Professor of Natural History, Chair of the Physics Department, and Director of the Chemical Physics Program at Hamilton College. He received his B.A. from Williams College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Princeton University. Before joining Hamilton College, Jones served as a National Research Council (NRC) postdoctoral researcher, worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and was a visiting scientist at Indiana University.

Jones's research focuses on using neutrons to investigate fundamental symmetries, such as time reversal symmetry and weak interactions in nuclei, and on polarizing neutrons for applications in materials science, including the study of magnetic materials like those in computer hard drive read heads. He has authored numerous publications in leading journals, including "Measurement of the Neutron Decay Electron-Antineutrino Angular Correlation by the aCORN Experiment" (Physical Review C, 2021), "Neutron polarimetry using a polarized 3He cell for the aCORN experiment" (Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 2021), "Measurement of the electron-antineutrino angular correlation in Neutron β Decay" (Physical Review Letters, 2017), and "New Limit on Time-Reversal Violation in Beta Decay" (Physical Review Letters, 2011). His pioneering contributions to fundamental neutron physics, development of neutron polarizers, and exceptional mentorship of undergraduate students earned him the American Physical Society’s 2021 Prize for a Faculty Member for Research in an Undergraduate Institution, which includes a $5,000 stipend and a $5,000 grant to Hamilton College. Jones has also secured five National Science Foundation grants and five Department of Energy grants, received the Samuel and Helen Lang Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2017, and the John R. Hatch Class of 1925 Excellence in Teaching Award in 2002.