Congratulations to Dr. Kimberly Jones, the 2015 HU ADVANCE-IT Researcher of the Year

Washington, DC – HU ADVANCE-IT presented its Woman in STEM Researcher of the Year Award to Dr. Kimberly L. Jones on Friday, April 17, 2015. The award, first given in 2014, recognizes the distinguished scholarship and leadership of women faculty in STEM at Howard University. HU ADVANCE – IT was a platinum sponsor of this year’s Research Week which culminated with this award presentation.

Dr. Jones is Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Howard University. She earned her B.S. degree in 1990 from Howard and then returned to join the faculty upon completion of her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering in 1996. Dr. Jones began making contributions toward understanding waste water treatment while she was still studying for her doctorate degree and she continues to make seminal contributions in the field some 19 years later with scholarship derived from a world-class research program that she built at Howard University.

In support of Dr. Jones’ nomination, Dr. Sonya T. Smith, principal investigator of HU ADVANCE-IT and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, declared, “I have enormous respect for her dedication to her research and to her students. She has produced over 20 Masters students, mentored 10 postdoctoral researchers and built a successful research program at Howard.”

In 2012, Howard University received a $3.4 million dollar ADVANCE Institutional Transformation award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance the careers of women faculty in STEM. HU ADVANCE-IT has a mission to education, advocate for, and empower women faculty in the STEM disciplines at Howard University. Its goal is to increase the number of women faculty (recruit, retain, and promote) in full professorships and administration. For more information about HU ADVANCE-IT, please visit http://huadvanceit.howard.edu/