Rebecca M. Jones earned a BA in chemistry from The Ohio State University, with honors in the liberal arts and with distinction in chemistry. She worked as an industrial chemist until matriculating to the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a MS and PhD in inorganic chemistry in 2004. She received tenure at Austin Peay State University and then relocated to George Mason University to begin OSCAR and Students as Scholars, Mason’s award-winning undergraduate research program. In this position, she created the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program and the Undergraduate Student Travel Fund, and organized the Celebration of Student Scholarship from 2012-2015.

Returning to the faculty in 2015, she is now Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the STEM Accelerator, where she regularly teaches general and inorganic chemistry and works to improve outcomes for STEM students. Her research interests include improving STEM education, photographic chemistry, and faculty mentoring and student development related to undergraduate research experiences.

She is an active member of the American Chemical Society, the president of Mason’s chapter of Sigma Xi, and an elected chemistry councilor on the Council on Undergraduate Research (since 2016). She has served the College of Science as a faculty senator (2016-2019), Secretary of the faculty (2017-2020), Chair of the faculty (2020-present), and coordinator of the COS Undergraduate Research Colloquium (since 2015).