One Temple professor opened her eyes to the vast possibilities of a mathematics degree, another helped her land a research internship at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) studying the ocean. Now Alexandra “Lexi” Jones, CST ’18, is combining her two passions: mathematics and understanding the earth system.
Photo by Photo credit: Lou Jones
Anyone can be a scientist. It’s who you meet along the way, and how they encourage you, that will give you the confidence to make it a reality.”
As a PhD candidate in the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution joint program in oceanography, Jones sometimes looks back at her blue-collar upbringing in rural Pennsylvania and marvels at the journey she’s taken.
Jones hails from Crestwood High School in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania, and was initially drawn to Temple because she liked the sound of its Honors program. What also sparked her interest was the fact that she would have plenty of STEM-related research opportunities.
“Both of my parents are college-educated and teachers, but, as a freshman, I had no idea what career I wanted,” Jones said. So, she started out as a physics major because it was her favorite class in high school, and she had always been good at math. But she quickly realized that she had no idea what physicists or mathematicians actually did for a living.
At the end of Jones’ first semester, Professor Maria Lorenz sent her home for winter break with a book called 101 Careers in Mathematics. From there, Jones started getting a clearer picture of her career options and switched her major to mathematics. Then, as a sophomore, she conducted research on evolutionary genomics with Rob Kulathinal, which led to an internship at NASA. The rest, she says, was history.
“During that internship at NASA, we took satellite data to study the ocean and I learned about phytoplankton, which produce 50% of the oxygen on our planet,” said Jones. She already had a strong interest in addressing climate change and was excited to find an overlap in her two passions. “Studying the behavior of phytoplankton really appealed to me because there’s a lot of physics, math and visualization involved,” she said.
College: College of Science and Technology
Degree: BS, mathematics, 2018
Industry: Oceanography
Hometown: White Haven, Pennsylvania
Since that first fateful NASA internship, phytoplankton have continued to stay front and center in Jones’ career. Her current research looks at how ocean currents—which are experiencing the effects of climate change—shape where different kinds of phytoplankton live.
“I use a combination of satellite data, mathematical models and also shipboard data where you actually go out and collect water samples,” she said. “I recently went on a monthlong ocean cruise where I took of some of the highest resolution DNA samples of phytoplankton ever taken before.”
Jones hopes to publish that data soon, as well as the first chapter of her doctoral thesis. In the meantime, she is working on DEI initiatives in her department and is mentoring undergraduates who need help in formulating their vision for the future, like she once did.
“Anyone can be a scientist,” she said. “It’s who you meet along the way, and how they encourage you, that will give you the confidence to make it a reality.”
