The Lawrence W. Jones Papers document Jones' professional activities as an experimental physicist throughout his career from 1952 through 2006, including major research interests as well as his participation in professional organizations and the administrative life of the University of Michigan. Jones' papers are arranged in seven series: Superconducting Super Collider, Professional Activities, Correspondence, Research Logs, and Subject Files, Biographical, and Professional Files.
Lawrence William Jones was born on November 16, 1925 in Evanston, Illinois. He received a B.S. (1948) and M.S. (1949) from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1952.
Jones spent his entire professional career on the faculty of the University of Michigan, joining the Department of Physics as an instructor in 1952. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1956, associate professor in 1960, and professor in 1963. He served as the chair of the department from 1982 to 1987. Upon his retirement in May 1998 he was named Professor Emeritus of Physics.
On sabbaticals and research leaves from the university, Jones held a position at the Midwestern Universities Research Association (MURA) from 1956 to 1957, and was a Ford Foundation Fellow (1961-1962) and Guggenheim Fellow (1965) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. He also held visiting posts at a number of academic institutions including Westfield College of the University of London (1977), the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research in Bombay (1979), the University of Adelaide, the University of Sydney, and the University of Auckland (all in 1991).
Jones' research spanned the range of particle accelerator design, detector developments, cosmic ray research, and experiments at many proton accelerators. His detector contributions included development of the luminescent (scintillation) chamber, various optical spark chamber concepts, and the ionization calorimeter for hadron energy measurement. His accelerator experiments included hadron cross sections, elastic and inelastic scattering, particle production, dimuon production, prompt neutrino production and charm production by protons. His expertise in cosmic-ray and accelerator physics made him a highly sought-after collaborator.
Jones served on the High Energy Advisory Panel Subpanel on Cosmic Ray Physics from 1968 to 1969 and on various NASA advisory panels between 1970 and 1996. He has also served on the leadership bodies of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and the Universities Research Association. Jones was a leader in the effort to bring the Department of Energy's Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) to the state of Michigan during the 1980s. He developed the initiative for a site proposal, served as technical advisor for the site proposal team and was a member of the governor's SSC Commission.
A major focus of Jones' research efforts from 1983 on was the large, multi-institutional high-energy physics experiment called L3. Based out of the CERN laboratory and headed by Nobel Prize Laureate (and U-M alumnus) Samuel C.C. Ting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), L3 constructed and employs a large detector to study and measure particles. Jones and the Michigan team led the design, construction and installation of the hadron calorimeter for the experiment, and Jones also participated in the Cosmics subgroup.
Jones is the author or co-author of over 200 scientific papers in refereed journals and books, as well as nearly 200 contributions to published conference proceedings, and chaired or co-chaired the doctoral committees of 18 graduate students.
Jones and his wife Ruth were married in 1950. They have three children.
