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Steve Jones (biologist)

Steve Jones
Steve Jones.png
Steve Jones (2012)
Born John Stephen Jones
(1944-03-24) 24 March 1944 (age 72)
Aberystwyth, Wales
Residence Camden, London
Nationality Welsh
Fields Genetics
Malacology
Institutions University College London
University of Edinburgh
University of Chicago
Alma mater University of Edinburgh
Thesis Studies on the ecological genetics of Cepaea (1972)
Known for Author, journalist and broadcaster furthering public understanding of science
Influences Bryan Clarke
Notable awards Fellow of the Royal Society (2012)
2006 Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society
Spouse Norma Percy

Website
UCL staff web-page

Royal Society web-page

Website
UCL staff web-page

John Stephen Jones FRS (born 24 March 1944) is a Welsh geneticist and from 1995 to 1999 and 2008 to June 2010 was Head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. His studies are conducted in the Galton Laboratory. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology, especially evolution. He is one of the contemporary popular writers on evolution. In 1996 his writing won him the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize "for his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media".

Jones was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, to Thomas Gwilym Jones and Lydia Anne Jones, his parents having met as students at the University of Aberystwyth. Until he was about ten years old the family were accommodated alternately at his paternal grandparents' house in New Quay, Ceredigion, and his maternal grandparents' house near Aberystwyth. Later the family moved to the Wirral, returning to Wales for their holidays.

Jones' paternal grandfather and great grandfather were both sea captains. Jones' father, a PhD chemist, worked on detergents such as Jif.Dylan Thomas was an acquaintance of his father. As a child Jones often stayed at his paternal grandparents' home and spent a lot of his time in the attic which contained some seafaring equipment, and boxes of books covering a wide variety of topics, many of which Jones read. He also went to libraries and by the age of 14 years he had read all the works of Charles Dickens. As a child in Ceredigion Jones spoke a lot of Welsh until he was 6 or 7 years old, and as a keen observer of local wildlife was particularly interested in birds. Jones was a pupil at Wirral Grammar School for Boys. At the age of 13 to 14 years old Jones was inspired to study biology by a school teacher.


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