Jones Promoted to Associate Professor

Aerospace Engineering faculty member Anya Jones has been promoted to the rank Associate Professor with tenure by University of Maryland (UMD) President Wallace Loh effective July 1, 2017.

Jones has been a faculty member at the University of Maryland (UMD) since 2010, and she is director of the Separated and Transient Aerodynamics Laboratory, an experimental aerodynamics laboratory that focuses on unsteady, separated and three-dimensional flows on flapping wings, rotorcraft and wind/water turbines.

In 2016, Jones received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The PECASE is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Her PECASE nomination was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, who recognized her for her outstanding contributions to foundational research in aerodynamics, and for her dedicated community service through which she inspires young people from underrepresented groups to seek careers in science and engineering.

In addition, the National Science Foundation recognized Jones with their Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program award for her research to improve the safety, reliability, and efficiency of air vehicles through a deeper understanding of the physics of the large flow field disturbances encountered in high winds and gusty flight environments.

Jones has developed unique experimental capabilities at UMD to allow for the exploration of the interaction between a wing and a large, well-characterized gust in a repeatable and controlled environment. By modeling this interaction both experimentally and analytically, her research offers a new approach to validating classical aerodynamic theories and a new framework for physics-based models of separated flow.

Beyond research, Jones has been active in supporting the next generation of engineers and scientists as a faculty advisor to UMD’s Women in Aeronautics and Astronautics organization, and by serving on the Raising Excitement for Science Engineering and Technology (RESET) board of directors.

Learn more about Jones’ work here or follow the lab on Twitter.

Published May 5, 2017