Dr. Jones’ teaching career began as an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in 1978. His work brought new ideas to the development of corn kernels that protected crops from environmental stresses and global climate change. Jones’ work became internationally respected, gaining attention around the world.

From 1984 to 1994, he served as an academic and scientific consultant for Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s South African Education Program. Throughout his distinguished Minnesota career, he earned increasingly prominent leadership positions. In 1989, Dr. Jones joined the University of Minnesota as an Adjunct Professor at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He also spent 1989 as a Visiting Scientist at Imperial Chemical Industries in Agriculture Chemistry.

In 1994, Dr. Jones was named Assistant to the Associate Vice President for Multicultural Affairs and Associate Provost, and in 1996, he became Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs. As Vice President, Dr. Jones oversaw the budget and administration of four University campuses in Duluth, Crookston, Morris, and Rochester. He also managed the Extension Service, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Stations, and public engagement, equity and diversity, information technology, and human resources offices. From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Jones was the Associate Director of Graduate Studies for the University of Minnesota’s Plant Biological Sciences Program. Dr. Jones was a visiting professor at China Agricultural University twice, first in 1997 and again in 2002.

In addition to his increasing administrative responsibilities, Dr. Jones has continued to focus on his agricultural research and produce groundbreaking results. He studies the impacts of heat and stress on maize kernel development and related biological mechanisms. He has published his research in dozens of scientific journals and peer-reviewed articles.

In 2004, Dr. Jones was named Senior Vice President for Academic Administration for the University of Minnesota System. While Senior Vice President, Dr. Jones received the Michael P. Malone International Leadership Award. He was also named an Endowed Chair in the Urban and International Development. Dr. Jones led the creation of a new four-year campus in Rochester. Dr. Jones also oversaw building the first urban research and outreach/engagement center (UROC) in the United States, designed to research the complex challenges experienced in economically depressed urban areas and potential solutions. The center was named in Dr. Jones’ honor in 2015.

In 2013, Dr. Jones became the President of the University at Albany, one of the State University of New York (SUNY) system’s leading research universities. During his tenure there, he launched the University’s largest academic expansion since UAlbany became a research and graduate institution in the early 1960s. He helped establish the nation’s first integrated College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity. He increased the number of degree programs and academic units, including creating the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He established Albany’s first vice presidency for health sciences and biomedical initiatives and advanced strategies for reinvigorating the arts and humanities. He obtained land resources and capital funds to construct the Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Center. Among his many achievements, Dr. Jones succeeded in enhancing inclusiveness, increasing outreach to the community, improving the student experience, and creating a more international student body.

In addition, he has earned esteemed awards such as the Western Seedsmen Award and was elected fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. In 2015, Jones was elected to the Board of Directors of Campus Compact, a national higher education association committed to advancing campus-based civic engagement.

Dr. Jones returned to the Midwest as the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016. As the University’s first African-American Chancellor, he paved the way for future educators to inspire change and create student unity. University of Illinois Urbana-CHampgain is a land-grant university and Illinois’ flagship school. Dr. Jones is also Vice President of the University of Illinois system. Dr. Jones is a tenured faculty in the Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES). 

Dr. Jones joined the University of Illinois at its Sesquicentennial. He is leading the University through several ambitious fundraising initiatives. The University had a target of $400 million, which they surpassed by raising $2.67 billion, with two large gifts supporting the naming and expansion of Gies College of Business and Grainger College of Engineering.

In the spirit of advancing academic and interdisciplinary research endeavors, Dr. Jones led the creation of The Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the first engineering-based medical school in the world. Always a champion of racial diversity in students and faculty, Dr. Jones hired the University’s first vice chancellor for diversity, education, and inclusion.

In 2019, Dr. Jones led the launch of the Illinois Commitment Scholarship program, which provides free tuition to Illinois students whose families make less than $67,100. Dr. Jones is determined to provide affordable, accessible, world-class college education to everyone.

He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of American Universities, the Chicago HOPE Foundation, the National 4H Council, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the Big Ten Conference Council of Presidents and Chancellors, the Farm Foundation, and the World Food Prize Advisory Council. In 2019, Dr. Jones was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2023, Dr. Jones was elected chair of the Association of American Universities Board of Directors.

To this day, Dr. Jones continues to be a role model for children of color and international educational relations. In each position, he has made these passions evident through communicating with urban development organizations about how progress happens and speaking in several foreign higher education institutes.

In addition to his academic career, Dr. Jones sang with the Grammy-award-winning Sounds of Blackness, a Twin Cities-based choir. Dr. Jones is married to Dr. Lynn Hassan Jones, MD, a muscular skeletal diagnostic radiologist. Together, they have five children and a growing number of grandchildren.