At Caltech he studied zeolites and catalysis under the guidance of Prof. Mark E. Davis, who is now the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus.
His early work at the interface of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis earned him recognition from the American Chemical Society with the Ipatieff Prize in 2010.
[2] In 2006, Jones began work designing solid adsorbents based on supported amines for carbon dioxide (CO2) separation from dilute gas streams.
Jones was the external examiner of the PhD thesis of Jan Wurzbacher, one of the cofounders of the DAC start-up Climeworks, at ETH Zurich.
Jones was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2022 for his contributions to the design and synthesis of catalytic materials and for advancing technologies related to carbon capture and sequestration.
[12][13] In 2023, Jones was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition his numerous patents and contributions to DAC technologies.