AAAS selects UTA’s Jones as fellow
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has named University of Texas at Arlington Professor Erick Jones Sr. as a fellow.
The AAAS recognized Jones, a professor in the Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering Department, “for distinguished contributions to the field of engineering, particularly for radio frequency identification (RFID), tracking, and lean six sigma contributions to manufacturing, logistics, health care, and public outreach.”
Jones said he was honored to be selected.
“Being connected to the world’s leading scientists is humbling and exciting recognition for my students, my team and my university,” he said. “I am happy to be recognized for my team’s research in working RFID wireless systems in realistic environments in space, advanced manufacturing and telemedicine.”
Jones is a noted scholar on automated inventory tracking, engineering economics and supply chain execution. He is a 2021-22 Jefferson Science Fellow with the U.S. State Department and a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.
“Dr. Jones has established a reputation as an excellent researcher in the field of RFID and has contributed much to the discipline,” engineering Dean Peter Crouch said. “The American Association for the Advancement of Science is one of the world’s most respected organizations, and it is a feather in our cap as a college that he is the latest of our faculty to reach the pinnacle of the organization.”
Jones joins seven current UTA faculty members who are AAAS fellows:
- Dereje Agonafer, mechanical and aerospace engineering
- Asish Basu, earth and environmental sciences
- James Coleman and Frank Lewis, electrical engineering
- Quinhong Hu, geology and geography
- Vistasp Karbhari, civil engineering
- Ramon Lopez, physics
Jones joined UTA’s Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering Department in 2010. He led a National Science Foundation-funded public/private center on logistics and a University center on homeland security. He was a director at the National Science Foundation in 2018.
Jones was associate dean for graduate affairs for the College of Engineering from 2019-21, supporting UTA’s goal of becoming a Texas Tier One institution. In this role, he facilitated recruitment, retention and support of the University’s efforts to graduate more than 200 PhD students for three years.
Jones has pushed for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts through fundraising in support of transfer students and corporate outreach. He chaired the Multi-Disciplinary Faculty Hiring Committee for hiring diverse faculty.
An Endowed Engineering Professor, William J. Fulbright Scholar for the United States, and an Alfred P. Sloan Minority Ph.D. Scholar, Jones has authored over 200 publications and secured and managed 70 research grants totaling more than $10 million. He also is a fellow of the African Science Institute, Sigma Xi and the International Supply Chain Education Alliance. He has authored four textbooks and three industry handbooks, most notably a book on supply-chain engineering.
The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics.
- Written by Jeremy Agor, College of Engineering