7

Published in Australia

A Career in Capacity Building

Russel C. Jones

Capacity building, as it is now understood, has been a life-long passion for the author. He has built

capacity to practice engineering in courses for his students, has developed the capacities of the

several academic units and institutions that he has worked for, and has enhanced the capacities of

several professional societies to serve the engineering profession. His current activity is directly

aimed at building the technical capacity of developing countries to enable them to join the competitive

global economy.

INTRODUCTION

The author was born and raised in western Pennsylvania,

in the USA. His family was blue-collar, and he

was born during the latter years of the Great Depression

in the USA. He was the first member of his family

to complete a college education, with a BS in Civil

Engineering from Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Initially, the author worked as a consulting

engineer for a small Pittsburgh engineering firm, but

he was soon attracted back to graduate study by a

fellowship from the National Defense Education Act

– the response of the US government to the challenge

posed by the launching of Sputnik by the Soviet

Union. The publication of his doctoral theses, Grain

Size and Loading Rate Effects on Steel, was

awarded the Collingwood Prize by the American

Society of Civil Engineers [1].

After earning a doctorate at Carnegie, he chose

an academic path. Over the years, the author

dedicated his career to engineering education, then

education more broadly, as he rose through academic

ranks. In parallel to his employment in academia,

he was active in volunteer work in the engineering

profession – an activism that continues to this date.

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

The author began his academic career as an assistant

and associate professor in the Civil Engineering

Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He developed several new courses during his

eight years there, in the structural materials area, and

conducted research in his technical specialty areas.

His first effort at what is now known as capacity building

was involvement in the InterAmerican Program in

Civil Engineering, which was an MIT programme

funded by the Ford Foundation and the US Agency

for International Development, and was aimed at

upgrading the education and research activities of

selected universities in Latin America. He collaborated

with universities in Chile, Argentina and Brazil – with

heaviest involvement with the University of Chile in

Santiago. The papers titled Substructure Formation

in Cyclicly Loaded Metals and The Formation of

Cell Structures in Fatigued Iron Crystals resulted

from that collaborative effort [2][3].

The author also undertook extensive research in

fibre-reinforced metals, with the paper Fractography

on Aluminum-Boron Composites being typical of that

effort [4]. In addition, he conducted funded research

projects for the National Aerospace and Space

Administration (NASA) on the utilisation of NASA

technologies in earthbound systems methodology and

urban construction.

The MIT InterAmerican Program in Civil

Engineering was the opening wedge in what has

become for the author a career-long involvement

in the international aspects of engineering

education and capacity building. During his

eight years at MIT, he travelled extensively to

Latin America to interact with research

collaborators there, and hosted many Latin

American researchers in his laboratories in the

USA.

The author’s first step up the academic administrative

ladder was his move to the Ohio State University

to serve as its department chairman. The timing

of that move was such that his department needed to

significantly expand its environmental engineering

activities, and the author was instrumental in building

up that area through the addition of new faculty

members, more students and expanded teaching and

research activities. He also reinforced existing

programmes in response to the needs of the Ohio

Department of Transportation, and to the local

construction industry. Papers describing the Ohio State

years include Option Packages for Undergraduate

Technical Depth and Construction as an Option

within Civil Engineering [5][6]. During his years at

Ohio State, the author also organised two national level

conferences on civil engineering education, reported

in The 1974 ASCE Conference on Education: a

Review and Evaluation and Where Does Civil

Engineering Education Go From Here? [7][8].

In preparation for further administrative advancement,

the author spent an intensive summer at Harvard

Business School in the Institute for Educational

Management.

Engineering education has always engaged in

self-study and renewal, and civil engineers in

the USA have been particularly active in doing

so. The author organised two major conferences

while a civil engineering department head at the

Ohio State University, focusing on educator

practitioner interactions and the changes needed

in the curriculum to adequately prepare

graduates for several decades of effective

professional practice. In addition to bringing

together hundreds of involved educators and

practitioners for conference interaction,

publications following up the conferences

impacted a wide swathe of the profession.

A second step into academic administrative leadership

came when the author moved to the University

of Massachusetts (UMass) at Amherst as Dean of

the College of Engineering. The timing of this move

immersed him in expanding the size and scope of that

College significantly in response to the needs of the

burgeoning demands of the high-technology industry

in the 128-belt around Boston. One major achievement

during his UMass years was the rejuvenation of

a programme in microwave engineering, which

provided a much needed flow of well prepared graduates

to the state’s high tech industry. His papers began to

reflect broader interests in engineering education, such

as Engineering Education for the 21st Century [9].

One major activity was leading the first capital

campaign ever conducted at the UMass to revamp

the engineering laboratories. Fund Raising for

Laboratory Renovation reports lessons learned

during that experience [10]. While serving as Dean,

the author also hosted the annual meeting of the American

Society for Engineering Education on the UMass

campus, attracting some 3,000 participants.

As the pre-eminent engineering education

organisation in the USA – and perhaps the world

– the American Society for Engineering

Education (ASEE) attracts several thousand

participants in its annual meetings. In the days

when the society held its annual meetings on

university campuses, the author hosted one such

annual meeting on the campus where he was

serving as the Dean of Engineering – the

University of Massachusetts. He and his staff

(and family) set the tone of the conference by

arranging keynote speakers, such as Michael

Dukakis, in the time between his service as

Governor of the state and candidate for the US

presidency. They also organised all the logistics

of the conference – accommodations, meals,

field trips, family events, etc. The quality of this

conference set a high mark for successive

annual meetings.

The next major step up the academic administration

ladder was the author’s appointment as Academic

Vice President at Boston University. He was invited

to that position at the time when Boston University

wanted to make major investments in developing its

science and engineering programmes. He was active

in the design and implementation of a major new science

and engineering building complex, fund raising

for that development, the attraction of key faculty leaders

for the effort, and the expansion of educational

and research programmes. During his years at Boston

University, the author also was heavily involved in

faculty evaluation, as seen in Weighing the Criteria,

and in faculty union issues, as illustrated in Impact of

a Collective Bargaining Contract [11][12].

His final step in academic management was his

appointment as President of the University of Delaware.

During his short term as President, he emphasised

strategic planning and the improvement of the

mix of minority faculty members and students on campus.

The planning effort was described in Nine Themes

Emerge from Project Vision Review [13]. His

inability to persuade the University Trustees, heavily

dominated by elderly members of the DuPont family,

to take a progressive approach on racial balance at

the University led to his resignation – which is

described in Why I Resigned as President [14].

After stepping down as President, the author continued

service at the University of Delaware for some

time as a University Research Professor. One major

accomplishment during that period was conducting a

National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project on

technological literacy, including holding a major

national level conference on the topic. That work

is described in Technological Literacy for Non-

Engineers [15].

Convinced that the population at large needed

to better understand engineering and technology,

the author led a movement to promote

technological literacy among non-engineers.

With funding from the US National Science

Foundation, he organised a major national

conference, which brought together the leading

experts in the field, to review models and

make recommendations to the profession. The

resulting major publications, aimed at

engineering deans and faculty members,

advocated for engineering schools to offer tech

literacy courses to non-engineering students on

campus (liberal arts, business and education

majors, for example). The author himself

developed and taught such a course at the

University of Delaware.

During that period, he also returned to student

status, and earned a Master’s degree in liberal studies

at the University of Delaware – in a programme that

he had initiated while President. His Master’s

thesis was published as Education of Engineers for

International Practice [16].

In a final formal career move, the author became

Executive Director of the National Society of Professional

Engineers – a member-based organisation of

licensed professional engineers based in Alexandria,

USA. As a Professional Engineer himself, licensed in

several states, the author had been active in NSPE

committee activities. During his years as CEO of the

organisation, he stressed service to members as the

way to reverse membership decline – and was

successful in turning the membership numbers back

up. He instituted a major annual meeting for the

membership, developed insurance and other

programmes for members and streamlined the

operation of the headquarters staff. NSPE National

Meetings for All Members describes one of these

initiatives [17]. During his years at the NSPE, the

author was heavily involved in negotiations with

engineering organisations in the USA, Canada and

Mexico as the engineering profession struggled to

implement the North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA). Expanding Cross-Border Engineering

Practice describes that activity [18].

When US President Clinton signed the NAFTA

agreement with Mexico and Canada, the

engineering profession was asked by the US

Government to facilitate the cross-border

practice of engineering among the three

countries. As Executive Director of NSPE, the

author and his professional colleagues were

major participants in the negotiations.

Unfortunately, the structure of engineering

licensure in the USA – where each of 55

state-level jurisdictions controls engineering

practice locally – made it impossible to get any

reasonable agreement on allowing Canadian

and Mexican engineers to practice in the USA,

short of meeting the stringent education,

practice and test requirements of each state in

which they wished to practice. So NATFA for

engineers is currently only operative between

Canada, Mexico and the State of Texas!

Having established a productive network of

contacts and activities in Washington, DC and internationally,

the author left the NSPE to work as a

consultant in an active semi-retirement. He continues

that activity today, consulting for industry

and chairing several national and international

organisations.

Working at the interface of the university and

industry over most of his career, the author built

many bridges for mutual benefit of those two

camps. While at the UMass and Boston

University in particular, he was heavily involved

in instituting mechanisms for providing industry

input to his academic units, and in gleaning

support from industry for the enhancement of

the engineering programmes he was responsible

for. Perhaps his best success was restarting and

updating a programme in microwave engineering

at the UMass, with major support from the

Raytheon Company. That programme provided

– and still provides – top quality microwave

engineering graduates at the Master’s level to

meet the needs of the high tech industry in the

128-belt around Boston and beyond.

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

While a student, at both the undergraduate and

graduate levels, the author was active in engineering

profession organisations – particularly in the

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Then

throughout his career, he continued such professional

society involvement – expanding it in scope and

responsibility levels.

During his time at the MIT, he was elected to the

ASCE National Board of Direction – representing the

New England States. After moving to Ohio State

University, he was again elected to the ASCE Board

– this time as Director from three Midwest states,

then as Vice President for one of the four geographic

zones of the organisation. The author has served on

and chaired dozens of committees for the ASCE over

the years, and continues to serve on some. One major

activity while serving on the Board was helping the

profession come to grips with rampant unethical

conduct – primarily kickbacks from engineers to

political figures in order to get contracts. His major

paper describing those years, Kickbacks Versus

Professional Ethics, became a case study for ethics

courses for engineering students [19].

Unethical and illegal practices in the

engineering profession surface periodically in

various geographies – and the author happened

to be serving on the Board of Direction of ASCE

when a spate of cases of illegal kickbacks to

politicians by engineers came to the surface.

He and his colleagues held hearings on each

allegation of such conduct, typically ending in

expelling the involved engineers from the

Society, and asking that their license to practice

be revoked. Some of the most flagrant cases

involved Spiro Agnew, during his years as a

county executive then Governor of Maryland –

eventually leading to his resignation while later

serving as Vice President of the USA.

The author served on the Accreditation Board for

Engineering and Technology (ABET) for many years,

first as an evaluator of civil engineering programmes,

then as a member of the group that led evaluation

visits, and finally as President of the ABET. He led

the development of accreditation criteria for the

surveying and construction fields. During his term as

President, he led in the restructuring of the large,

complex Board, and initiated a move to facilitate

accreditation of graduate engineering programmes.

The first of these efforts succeeded, and the second

failed – as a majority of deans of engineering opposed

having the ABET involved in their graduate offerings.

His year as President is described in 1988 ABET President’s

Address [20]. One of the major accomplishments

during his leadership period was the establishment

of the Washington Accord, a cross-border

mutual recognition mechanism that has grown beyond

its original six members and is now the gold standard

for engineering quality assurance at the international

level. The paper, International Trends in Engineering

Accreditation and Quality Assurance, describes

these international developments [21].

The Washington Accord, destined to become

the gold standard for engineering accreditation

internationally, was developed during the

author’s term as President of the ABET. Visits

by accreditation activists among the original six

English-speaking countries led to a mutual

recognition system that treats engineering

graduates in any of the countries as if they were

graduates in the country where recognition is

being sought. The Accord has grown over the

years, with more countries being accepted

into membership, and its standards have set the

norm for engineering accreditation around

the globe.

Long active in the American Society or Engineering

Education (ASEE), the author is currently chairman

of its International Division. He has served on the

organising committees for several ASEE International

Colloquia. He previously chaired a major task force

evaluating advanced technologies for classroom and

laboratory use in engineering education – described in

Uses of Educational Technology [22].

The ASEE asked the author to chair a major

task force to evaluate the educational technology

that was creeping into the classrooms and

laboratories of engineering schools in the 1980s,

and to make recommendations on what types

of technology should be introduced and at what

pace. The resulting report – delivered in printed

form and via a nationally televised session on

the network of the National Technological

University – recommended steps engineering

schools should be taking in introducing

computers into the classroom and laboratories,

the use of video recordings to time-shift and

distance-shift continuing education for

practicing engineers, etc).

One technological application developed by the

author and several of his colleagues in more

recent years is the electronic conference, which

allows engineering educators who cannot get

to international engineering colloquia and

conferences to participate electronically.

Successful e-conferences, aimed primarily at

engineering educators in developing countries,

have been run in conjunction with annual

meetings of the European Society for

Engineering Education (SEFI) and the ASEE.

In the American Association of Engineering Societies

(AAES), the author has long served on the International

Activities Committee. He also has worked

through the AAES to conduct a major study on the

utilisation of engineers in industry, as described in the

paper Better Utilisation of Engineers – Results and

Conclusions of NSF Utilisation Study [23].

Concerned about how engineers were being

utilised in industry as computer aided design,

word processing and other advanced technologies

were sweeping the workplace in the 1980s,

the author and his colleagues obtained funding

from the US National Science Foundation and

the US Department of Defense to undertake a

major study on the utilisation of engineers.

Through fact-finding visits to interview

engineers and their managers at several major

employers of engineers, as well as a major

survey, the research team was able to glean a

clear picture of how engineers were coping in

the transition to computer support instead of

technicians and secretaries. The results of the

study were published widely and presented at

several national meetings.

During some 18 years when the USA took itself

out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the author became

engaged in keeping vital parts of the relationship

between US engineers and UNESCO alive. He

co-chaired a committee which provided advice to the

Director General of UNESCO, and in that capacity

organised two major international conferences on

engineering education in Paris, France, at the

UNESCO headquarters. The paper, Accomplishments

of the International Committee on Engineering

Education under the Auspices of UNESCO

describes that activity [24]. One of the major

accomplishments of that period was the formation of

the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering

Education (UICEE), based at Monash University,

Melbourne, Australia. That Centre has grown and

flourished in the intervening decade, and now has a

major international network of collaborating universities.

A recent review paper in the Global Journal of

Engineering Education – which is published by

UICEE – called UNESCO-Based Efforts at Capacity

Building: from 1992 to 2005 chronicles the development

of the UICEE [25]. The author remains active

with UNESCO now that the USA has rejoined, serving

on the US National Commission on UNESCO as a

representative of the US engineering profession.

Conferences organised by the author and his

colleagues at UNESCO headquarters in Paris

in the early 1990s led to the development of

several action projects – including the formation

of the UNESCO International Centre for

Engineering Education (UICEE) at Monash

University in Australia. The Centre was

established to serve the needs of engineering

educators, particularly in developing countries,

for continued professional development. Over

the years, it has provided opportunities for such

professional updating to engineering educators

around the globe through a series of annual

conferences and the establishment of the

Global Journal of Engineering Education.

In recent years, the author has been very

active in stimulating key bodies, such as

UNESCO and the World Federation of

Engineering Organisations (WFEO), to develop

programmes in technical capacity building for

economic and social development in developing

countries. Working with the new US Ambassador

to UNESCO, he and his WFEO colleagues

were instrumental in getting the UNESCO

governing body to establish a cross-sectoral

programme in capacity building, involving its

engineering, education and ICT sectors. In

parallel with that effort, the author led in the

establishment of an active new standing

committee on capacity building within the

WFEO structure – an effort that he has chaired

since its initiation in 2003.

In the international engineering arena, the author

has been active in the Pan American Association

of Engineering Societies (UPADI) and the World

Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO). He

was General Chairman of the 1990 biannual meeting

of the UPADI, held in Washington, DC. He currently

serves as Chair of the UPADI Education Committee

and is a member of the team planning the 2006 UPADI

biannual conference in Atlanta. The paper, Convention

Summary, describes the 1990 meeting [26].

Long active as a member of the WFEO Committee

on Education and Training, the author was

asked in 2003 to form a new standing committee for

the WFEO – the Committee on Capacity Building,

hosted by the US American Association of Engineering

Societies. This Committee has some 40 members

from about 25 countries, and is actively engaged

in projects to develop technical capabilities in

developing countries in order to enhance economic

development. The paper titled Engineering

Capacity Building in Developing Countries to

Promote Economic Development describes recent and

current Committee efforts, with an early focus on Latin

America and an emerging concentration on sub-

Saharan Africa [27].

The initial thrust of the WFEO Committee on

Capacity Building has been the Engineering

for the Americas programme. The author and

his colleagues, working through the

Organization of American States (OAS), have

obtained formal support from the Ministers of

Science and Technology of the 34 countries of

the OAS, and the presidents of those countries,

to make the enhancement of engineering

throughout Latin America and the Caribbean a

top priority. At a major conference in Lima,

Peru, in late 2005, educators, industry leaders,

and government officials gathered to pursue

technical capacity building throughout the

hemisphere of the Americas.

Several years ago, concerned that many engineering

educators were not taking a sufficiently global view

of their field, the author founded the International

Engineering Education Digest. This monthly digest

of published articles that are of interest to engineering

educators provides summaries of key articles from

many sources, and lists the location where the entire

article may be read with the click of a mouse. It is

distributed free to some 70,000 engineering educators

around the globe through several professional

societies.

All back issues of the Digest are posted on the

World Wide Web at www.worldexpertise.com. That

Web site also contains the full texts of all

papers that the author has written or co-authored in

recent years.

Persuaded that engineering educators needed

continued stimulation in international matters if

they were to attend to adequately preparing their

graduates for international practice in the

global economy, the author founded a monthly

electronic newsletter that now goes to many

tens of thousands of engineering educators

around the world. The International

Engineering Education Digest provides

summaries of print and electronic articles of

import and interest to engineering educators,

and facilitates access to original articles for

possible follow-up by readers. It has proven to be

a popular way for busy educators to stay abreast

of developments – with the author and his

co-editor, Bethany Oberst, searching out

relevant materials and providing cogent

summaries.

RECOGNITIONS AND AWARDS

The author’s accomplishments in engineering

education and beyond have been recognised by his

election to Fellow status in several organisations,

specifically: the American Society for Engineering

Education, American Society of Civil Engineers,

Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology,

American Association for the Advancement of

Science, Institution of Engineers of Ireland, National

Society of Professional Engineers, and the Royal

Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures

and Commerce (UK). He has recently been elected

to Honorary Member status in the American Society

of Civil Engineers.

In addition to the ASCE Collingwood Award

mentioned previously, the author has been awarded

the ASCE Friedman Professional Recognition Award

and the International Medal of the Australasian

Association for Engineering Education. He was named

Delaware Engineer of the Year in 1994, and was

awarded the University of Massachusetts Engineering

Alumni Association Award. He spent a year as Senior

Fellow at the American Council on Education.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

One of the author’s daughters recently asked

him, When are you going to retire? He answered as

follows:

I am as retired as I am ever going to

be – spending full time and all available

effort and resources to address some of

the major issues in the world – poverty

reduction, economic development,

technical excellence, etc. Assisting

developing countries to build technical

capacity in order to attract direct foreign

investment, to use aid monies more effectively,

and to stimulate small to medium

businesses through entrepreneurial

activity as a capstone to his academic and

professional career is proving extremely

rewarding – and effective.

REFERENCES

1. Jones, R.C. and Hribar, J.A., Grain size and

loading rate effects on steel. J. of Engng.

Mechanics Division, Proc. ASCE, October,

43-69 (1964).

2. Jones, R.C. and Joseph, G., Substructure formation

in cyclicly loaded metals. Proc. Conf.

Preprint 318, ASCE Structural Engng. Conf.,

20 (1966).

3. Jones, R.C. and Lawrence, F.V. Jr, The formation

of cell structures in fatigued iron crystals.

Metallurgical Trans., February, 1, 367-376

(1970).

4. Jones, R.C., Fractography on aluminium-boron

composites. Composite Materials: Testing and

Design, 460, 512-527 (1969).

5. Jones, R.C., Option packages for undergraduate

technical depth. Civil Engng. Educ. Related to

Engng. Practice and the Nation’s Needs, 1,

32-38 (1974).

6. Jones, R.C. and Mason, G.E., Construction as an

option within civil engineering. Civil_Engng.

Educ. – Related to Engng. Practice and the

Nation’s Needs, 1, 620-627 (1974).

7. Jones, R.C., The 1974 ASCE Conference on

Education a review and evaluation. Civil Engng.

Educ. – Responding to the Challenges of

Engng. Practice, 1, 12-24 (1979).

8. Jones, R.C., Where does civil engineering education

go from here? Civil Engng. Educ. – Responding

to the Challenges of Engng. Practice,

2, 860-865 (1979).

9. Jones, R.C., Engineering education for the 21st

Century. Proc. 9th Pan American Congress of

Engng. Educ., Mexico City, Mexico, 14

(1980).

10. Jones, R.C., Fund Raising for Laboratory

Renovation. In: Grayson, L.P. and Biedenbach,

J.M. (Eds), Education and Industry: a Joint

Endeavor. ASEE, 692-696 (1981).

11. Jones, R.C., Weighing the criteria. Faculty Evaluation:

Selected Views, Engineering Education,

ASEE, April, 684 (1986).

12. Jones, R.C., Impact of a collective bargaining

contract. Issues in Engng. – J. of Professional

Activities, 106, El3, 241-248 (1980).

13. Jones, R.C., Nine themes emerge from project

vision review. President’s Column, UPDATE,

13 October , 2-3 (1988).

14. Jones, R.C., Why I resigned as President. News

J., 26 October, A11 (1988).

15. Jones, R.C. and Kumar, T., Technological literacy

for non-engineers. Proc. 21st Frontiers in Educ.

Conf., West Lafayette, USA, 179-184 (1991).

16. Jones, R.C., Education of engineers for international

practice. Proc. 4th World Conf. on

Engng. Educ., St Paul, USA, 3, 268-273 (1995).

17. Jones, R.C., NSPE National Meetings for all

members. Engng. Times, November, 7 (1995).

18. Jones, R.C., Expanding cross-border engineering

practice. Engng. Times, June, 5 (1998).

19. Jones, R.C., Kickbacks versus professional

ethics. Engng. Issues – J. of Professional

Activities, 101, El3, 357-364 (1975).

20. Jones, R.C., 1988 ABET President’s Address.

1988 Annual Report, New York: ABET, 5-8 (1989).

21. Jones, R.C. and Oberst, B.S., International trends

in engineering accreditation and quality assurance.

Proc. SEFI Annual Meeting, Paris, France

(2000).

22. Jones, R.C. (Chairman), Uses of educational technology.

Quality of_Engineering Education. Final

report of task force, Washington, DC: ASEE, September

1986, 73-122 (1986)).

23. Jones, R.C. and Weinschel, B.O., Better utilization

of engineers – results and conclusions of NSF

Utilization Study. Proc. IEEE Careers Conf.,

Boston, USA, 35-54 (1985)

24. Jones, R.C., Johnson, G.R., Jensen, H.P. and Lih,

M.M., Accomplishments of the International

Committee on Engineering Education under the

auspices of UNESCO. Proc. SEFI Conf. on

Engng Educ.: Rediscovering the Centre,

Copenhagen, Denmark (1999).

25. Jones, R.C., UNESCO-based efforts at capacity

building: from 1992 to 2005. Global J. of Engng.

Educ., 9, 2, 105-109 (2005).

26. Jones, R.C., Convention summary. Pan

American Engineers - Partners for Progress,

29-46 (1991).

27. Jones, R.C., Engineering capacity building in

developing countries to promote economic development.

Proc. Annual Meeting of the European

Society for Engng. Educ., Ankara, Turkey

(2005).

BIOGRAPHY

Russel Cameron Jones is a private consultant, working

through World Expertise LLC to offer services to a

select clientele. He is the Editor of the International

Engineering Education Digest, a periodic electronic

newsletter. Prior to forming World Expertise LLC as

Managing Partner, he served as the Executive Director of the National Society of

Professional Engineers, an individual member society

for the licensed professional engineer with offices in

Alexandria, USA. Dr Jones received his education at Carnegie

Institute of Technology, earning degrees in civil

engineering and materials science. Prior to returning

to Carnegie for his doctoral study, he worked as a

practicing civil engineer. He has spent much of his

career as an educator, starting with engineering

education and broadening to higher education as a

whole. After completing his doctoral degree in 1963,

he taught for eight years on the faculty of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then served

in a succession of administrative posts in higher

education, for several years each: Chairman of Civil

Engineering at Ohio State University, Dean of

Engineering at the University of Massachusetts,

Academic Vice President at Boston University, and

the President and University Research Professor at

the University of Delaware.