Director of AIF Named IEEE Fellow


AIF’s Director, Dr. Jacob Leo Jones, has been named an IEEE Fellow. He is being recognized for development of X-ray scattering methods to understand electromechanical properties of ferroelectrics.  

The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

Jones has developed experimental X-ray diffraction methods and supporting data analysis methods to quantify the contributions to electromechanical properties of ferroelectrics, for example those arising from domain wall motion and electric-field-induced lattice strain. Pioneering these methods positioned him at the state-of-the-art in the fundamental science of ferroelectric properties for over a decade. In parallel to his contributions using X-ray diffraction, Jones has pioneered the application and development of X-ray “total scattering” methods to ferroelectric materials. While diffraction provides information about the long-range, averaged structural order in crystalline materials, evaluation of the X-ray total scattering pattern can yield the Pair Distribution Function (PDF). The PDF provides important information about the local dipolar structure of ferroelectrics, e.g. at length scales between 2 Å (0.2 nm) and 50 Å (5 nm).

Jones is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Director and Principal Investigator of the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network, Director of the Analytical Instrumentation Facility, and a University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University. Since 2018, Jones has served as Vice President for Ferroelectrics and Chair of the Ferroelectrics Standing Committee in the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control (UFFC) Society. He has received numerous awards for his research and education activities, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the IEEE Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award, and the 2019 NC State Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award.

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See a list of the 2020 newly elevated fellows here.

UFFC Announcement