Department News
Jones Receives Royal Society of Chemistry Award
May 10, 2017
William Jones, the Charles F. Houghton Professor of Chemistry, will receive the 2017 Organometallic Chemistry Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for finding new methods for converting hydrocarbons into chemicals found in useful, everyday products.
The award consists of £2000 and a medal. In addition, Jones is invited to deliver lectures at up to four United Kingdom universities between September 2017 and May 2018.
An example of Jones’ research is a series of reactions that results in the selective conversion of ethanol to butanol, without producing unwanted byproducts. “Butanol is much better than ethanol as an alternative to gasoline,” Jones says. “It yields more energy, is less volatile, and doesn't cause damage to engines.” (Read more here.)
Jones is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of Rochester in 2009. He received his PhD in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1979, then served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin for a year before joining the University of Rochester in 1980.