Thomas Alwyn Jones (born 30 August 1947) is a Welsh

biophysicist Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

and a professor at the

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in Sweden.

Early life and education

Alwyn Jones attended the primary school at

Bedlinog Bedlinog is a village and community located in the Taff Bargoed valley, in the south of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales. It is north of Pontypridd, north west of Caerphilly and south east of Merthyr Tydfil. Until 1974 it was part of G ...

, and went on to the

Lewis School, Pengam Lewis Boys School, Pengam is a comprehensive school, founded in 1729 in the parish and village of Gelligaer and, later, moved to the nearby village of Gilfach, in the Rhymney Valley in South Wales. It was founded and funded by a legacy of Sir Edw ...

where he studied his

GCE Ordinary Level GCE can mean: * Galactic Center GeV excess * Gas Control Equipment, GCE Group, Sweden * General Certificate of Education * Global citizenship education * Google Compute Engine * Ground combat element in the United States Marine Corps * Guthri ...

s and

A-level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

s. He was educated at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

, where he received his BSc in physics and a PhD degree in biochemistry.

Career

He held various positions at the

Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry The Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (; abbreviated MPIB) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society located in Martinsried, a suburb of Munich. The institute was founded in 1973 by the merger of three formerly independent institutes ...

, Munich from 1973 to 1979, and in Uppsala from 1979. Jones was a research professor employed by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council 1987–1994, and has been Professor of Structural Biology at the Department of Molecular Biology, Uppsala, from 1994. He is also a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(elected in 1992) and a Foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

(elected in 2000). He is a recipient of the

Gregori Aminoff Prize The Gregori Aminoff Prize is an international prize awarded since 1979 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in the field of crystallography, rewarding "a documented, individual contribution in the field of crystallography, including areas concer ...

(2003), "for his pioneering development of methods to interpret electron density maps and to build models of biological macromolecules with the aid of computer graphics" and the Lindo Patterson Award, 2005, from the

American Crystallographic Association The American Crystallographic Association, Inc. (ACA) is a non-profit, scientific organization for scientists who study the structure of matter via crystallographic methodologies. Since its founding in 1949 it has amassed over 2000 members worldwi ...

. Jones is most noted for development of widely used programs for fitting models into

crystallographic Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

electron density maps, first Frodo, then its further developed version O (

molecular graphics Molecular graphics is the discipline and philosophy of studying molecules and their properties through graphical representation. IUPAC limits the definition to representations on a "graphical display device". Ever since Dalton's atoms and Keku ...

), and for involvement in

structure validation Macromolecular structure validation is the process of evaluating reliability for 3-dimensional atomic models of large biological molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. These models, which provide 3D coordinates for each atom in the molecu ...

. He has solved a very large number of protein crystal structures and is listed as a depositor on 126 structures at the

Protein Data Bank The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a database for the three-dimensional structural data of large biological molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids, which is overseen by the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB). This structural data is obtained a ...

, especially emphasizing enzymes and viruses. Web of Science credits him with over 29,000 citations, and Google Scholar with over 14,000 citations (since 1990) and an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 58, including over 11,000 citations for O and 1700 for Frodo. He is currently a professor at

in Sweden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Alwyn 1947 births Living people Alumni of King's College London Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society Welsh biophysicists