Rebecca Jones
- Professor
Contact Info

- Name
- Dr. Rebecca M. Jones
- Job Title
- Professor
- Website
- Phone Number
- Office Number
- Planetary Hall, Room 319, MSN 3E2
Affiliations
Departments
- Chemistry & Biochemistry Department (Instructional Faculty)
Research Areas
- Chemistry
- Education Research
Education
- PhD, 2004, Inorganic Chemistry, University of Cincinnati
- MS, 2002, Chemistry, University of Cincinnati
- BA, 1998, Chemistry, with honors, The Ohio State University
About
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).
Current Research
Chemistry education, undergraduate research, mentoring, STEM education, STEM retention and recruitment, alternative photographic processes.
Teaching Focus
- General Chemistry
- General Chemistry for Engineers
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Bioinorganic Chemistry
- Senior Seminar
Selected Publications
- Jones, R. M.; Cleaver, R. Recruiting and Enrolling Rural Students: A Model for Increasing Diversity in STEM. Innovative Higher Education 2020, 45 (3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09499-6.
- Jones, R. M. Advancing Scientific Communication with Infographics: An Assignment for Upper-Level Chemistry Classes. In ACS Symposium Series: Advancing Scientific Communication with Infographics; Crawford, G. L., Kloepper, K. D., Meyers, J. J., Singiser, R. H., Eds.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2019; Vol. 1327, pp 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2019-1327.ch009.
- Fudala, C.; Jones, R. M. The Chemistry of Mordançage, a Historic Photographic Process. Anal. Chem. 2019, 91(22), 14482–14488. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.9b03205.
- Jones, R. M. Introducing Chemical Research to Undergraduates: A Survey Course for Sophomores and Juniors. In Developing and Maintaining a Successful Undergraduate Research Program; Chapp, T. W., Benvenuto, M. A., Eds.; American Chemical Society, Series Ed.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2013; Vol. 1156, pp 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2013-1156.ch007.
- Davis, S. N.; Jones, R. M.; Mahatmya, D.; Garner, P. W. Encouraging or Obstructing? Assessing Factors That Impact Faculty Engagement in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. Front. Educ. 2020, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00114.
- Davis, S.; Jones, R. The Genesis, Evolution, and Influence of Undergraduate Research Mentoring Relationships. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2020, 14 (1). https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2020.140106.
- Davis, S. N.; Garner, P. W.; Jones, R. M.; Mahatmya, D. The Role of Perceived Support and Local Culture in Undergraduate Research Mentoring by Underrepresented Minority Faculty Members: Findings from a Multi-Institutional Research Collaboration. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 2020, 28 (2), 176–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2020.1749347.
Awards
- 2022: College of Science Dean's Impact Award
- 2022: Preparing Chemists for the Future Award
- 2016-2022: Principal Investigator, “The RADSS program (Rural and Diverse Student Scholars)”, NSF S-STEM, NSF Award #1564989, April 1, 2016 - March 31, 2021, $643,925.00, (https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1564989)
- 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022: Teaching Excellence Award Nominee, George Mason University
- 2016: Honored professor at Mason Women’s Volleyball Faculty Appreciation Night
Understanding a historic photographic process
Dr. Rebecca Jones and Caroline Fudala (BS Biochemistry, 2019) unveiled the mysterious chemistry behind the mordanҫage process. In 2019, they published their work in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.

Contact Info

- Name
- Dr. Rebecca M. Jones
- Job Title
- Professor
- Website
- Phone Number
- Office Number
- Planetary Hall, Room 319, MSN 3E2