Rate My Professor Norman Jones

Norman Jones is a distinguished Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering and Chair of the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering in the College of Engineering at Brigham Young University. He earned his BS in Civil Engineering from Brigham Young University in 1986, graduating summa cum laude as the outstanding civil engineering graduate and delivering the convocation address for the college. Jones then pursued advanced studies at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving his MS in Civil Engineering with a focus on geotechnical engineering in 1988 and his PhD in 1990, both supported by university fellowships. His doctoral dissertation addressed solid modeling of earth masses for geotechnical applications. Joining the BYU faculty in 1991 as an Assistant Professor, he progressed to Associate Professor from 1997 to 2002 and Full Professor thereafter, assuming the department chairmanship in 2018.

Jones's research centers on hydroinformatics, groundwater modeling, sustainable aquifer management, machine learning, earth observations, and slope stability analysis. He directed the development of the Groundwater Modeling System (GMS) software, utilized worldwide by thousands of organizations for groundwater flow and transport simulations. His contributions extend to web-enabled modeling and resource management tools, reflected in key publications such as 'Watershed delineation with triangle-based terrain models' (ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 1990), 'Solid modeling for site representation in geotechnical engineering' (Geotechnical Engineering Congress, 1991), and more recent works on adaptive tessellation for TINs (ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 1999) and MODFLOW-setup for groundwater model construction (Frontiers in Earth Science, 2022). Jones has garnered major awards, including the 2021 John Hem Science and Technology Award from the National Ground Water Association, 2016 American Water Resources Association Educator of the Year, Brigham Young University's Karl G. Maeser Research and Creative Arts Award (2012), ASCE's Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize (2001), and the 2023 BYU Sponsored Projects Recognition Award. He has served on NSF EPSCoR review committees, USGS proposal evaluations, ASCE EWRI committees, and editorial boards for the Journal of Hydroinformatics and AQUA mundi. Jones teaches courses in computer methods for civil engineers, groundwater modeling, seepage and slope stability analysis, and leads study abroad programs. His extensive presentations and memberships in AGU, AWRA, NGWA, and ASCE underscore his influence in the field.