“You never know what path you’re going on,” said Patty Jones, the associate director for research at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. And, yes, she has gone on many different paths.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the U. of I., Jones earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She later became a professor of industrial engineering at the U. of I., and then left for California to work at NASA’s Ames Research Center from 2001-2012, where she served in several different roles, including the last one as the deputy director of exploration technology.
Her jobs at NASA included a combination of research, finance and bureaucratic-type jobs.
For Jones, life isn’t about “moving up” or making more money; it’s about having different experiences.
“I really like the different choices that I have made in my life,” she said.
She’s been serving in her current position since 2012. In her job, she oversees the research facilities at the Beckman Institute, including the Biomedical Imaging Center, the Microscopy Suite, the Visualization Laboratory and the Illinois Simulator Laboratory. She also is the project manager for the INSIGHT brain-training project, which is headed by professor Aron K. Barbey. The project is funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Jones assists professors and students in writing proposals to gain research funding; her previous job as a U. of I. professor gave her some familiarity with this. Reporting directly to Beckman’s director, she helps write the annual campus budget report and the annual report to the Beckman Foundation.
A lot of her job involves helping people.
“Much like most teachers or professors, what is really fun is to help other people succeed,” she said.
She feels a lot of people aren’t quite sure about the work being done at Beckman, and she wants people to know it’s an amazing place with collaborative research going on.
She is married and has three children, ages 16, 14 and 10. The family enjoys playing board games and taking walks. Jones also has a twin sister, Cathy Murphy, who also is at the U. of I.; she is a professor of chemistry. Murphy was one of the reasons Jones came back to Illinois after working at NASA.
Jones believes it’s important for students to try different subjects in school, and people shouldn’t feel bad or get discouraged about not being great at something the first time they try.
“There’s so many cool things to do in the world; I always encourage people to explore,” she said.
The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology has posted a video of Jones and her twin sister discussing some of the same topics addressed in this story.
