Robert J. Jones (born 1951)[1] is an American crop physiology scientist, currently serving as the 10th chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since September 2016.

[2] In addition to his academic career, Jones was a tenor singer[3] in Sounds of Blackness, a vocal ensemble from Minneapolis/St.

[5] Jones made national headlines for presiding over a racial hoax that was reported as a race-motivated assault against three African-American women on a campus bus.

[10] Based upon a police report at the time, Jones firmly declared in a public announcement that “early this morning, three of our students were harassed and assaulted while riding a bus in Albany.

According to Jones, leaving the University at Albany was one of the most difficult decisions he had to make in his academic career.