Leading Materials Engineer Linda E. Jones to Direct Smith College's Innovative Engineering Program.

(From AScribe)

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- One of the country's preeminent researchers in high-temperature materials, Linda E. Jones of Alfred University, was recently named director of Smith College's pioneering Picker Engineering Program.

Jones will begin July 1, succeeding Domenico Grasso and interim director Joseph O'Rourke, to lead the nation's first engineering program at a women's college.

I am thrilled to become part of a program that is delivering an engineering education to truly prepare women for leadership roles in the 21st century, said Jones. Engineers at Smith are educated not simply to solve problems others have set for them but to identify problems and issues and, in doing so, to become responsible for the solution. Responsibility and leadership go hand in hand.

A faculty member at Alfred University since 1991, Jones rose from assistant professor in ceramic engineering and materials science to professor and chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Program, a post she has held since 2003. Ceramic engineers create and combine materials for new applications such as human joint replacements that will be accepted by a body and last a lifetime.

Since joining Alfred University in western New York state, Jones has received 32 national grants and awards totaling nearly $3 million to fund her research. Her work examines novel forms of carbon, including carbon oxidation and diamond oxidation, high-temperature solid gas reactions and the environmental effects of ceramic and glass manufacturing.

"Linda is ideally suited for the extraordinary charge of graduating the critical thinkers and socially responsible decision makers who will shape our world," said Provost Susan C. Bourque. "She is a gifted educator whose excitement about engineering is infectious."