Akhenaton-Andrew Dhafir Jones

Research Themes

Environmental Health Engineering, Hydrology & Fluid Dynamics

Research Interests

Biofilms, cardiovascular infections, infectious diseases, biomaterials, antibiotics, porous media flows, fate and transport of nanomaterials in biofilms, water quality sensors, environmental systems analysis, environmental equity, environmental justice

Bio

Dr. Jones' research uses engineering and policy analysis to help solve global challenges related to water and health. He is a 2021 recipient of the NIH R35 Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award to develop new models and tools for studying biofilms and a 2019 Sloan SEED fund award to develop new tools for point of use water quality monitoring systems. He was recognized as Young Investigator by the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State, the premier center for biofilm research in the US. He received a BS in Mathematics and BS, MS, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT where he was a Lemelson Presidential Fellow and Alfred P. Sloan MPHD Scholar. He completed post-doctoral training as a Future Faculty Fellow at Northeastern University. He has directly supervised 2 high school students, over 20 undergraduates, 5 MS, 5 PhD, and 2 post-doctoral trainees including 8 from underrepresented backgrounds and 19 women. He and his team have presented at over 40 conferences and seminars. He served as a Pratt Coaching 360 advisor and Duke UCEM Faculty Champion for Civil & Environmental Engineering.

Education

• B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010
• B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010
• M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014
• Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018

Positions

• Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• Early Career Alumnus Award. SSRCu2019s Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network. 2024
• Outstanding Postdoc Mentor. Duke University Office of Postdoctoral Services. 2023
• 1,000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America. Cell Press . 2021
• Post-doctoral Student Award. The American Institute of Chemist. 2019
• Young Investigator Award. Montana State University Center for Biofilm Engineering. 2018
• 2nd Place Poster Biophysics Section. American Physics Society/Division of Fluid Dynamics. 2015
• NSBE Torchbearer. National Society of Black Engineers. 2008
• AIChE Minority Scholarship Award. American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 2006
• College of Arts & Science Honors Student of the Year Award. Florida A&M University. 2006
• 3rd Place Oral Chemistry. Florida Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance. 2005
• 1st Place Oral Undergraduate. Minority Biological Research Symposium/Florida A&M University. 2005

Courses Taught

• ME 591: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science
• EGR 101L: Engineering Design and Communication
• CEE 701: Graduate Colloquium
• CEE 690: Advanced Topics in Civil and Environmental Engineering
• CEE 560: Environmental Transport Phenomena
• CEE 493: Research Independent Study in Civil and Environmental Engineering
• CEE 394: Research Independent Study in Civil and Environmental Engineering
• CEE 301L: Fluid Mechanics

Publications

• Woolley G, Kroll K, Hoffman K, Ward A, Corneli A, Mudrak SV, et al. The Climate Change Burden on Immune Health: Are Persons Living with HIV More at Risk? AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2024 Oct;40(10):549–54.
• Childs SK, Jones A-AD. A microtiter peg lid with ziggurat geometry for medium-throughput antibiotic testing and in situ imaging of biofilms. Biofilm. 2023 Dec;6:100167.
• Prince J, Jones A-AD. Heterogenous biofilm mass-transport model replicates periphery sequestration of antibiotics in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 microcolonies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2023 Nov;120(47):e2312995120.
• Prince J, Jones A-AD. Heterogenous Biofilm Mass-Transport Model Replicates Periphery Sequestration of Antibiotics in P. aeruginosa PAO1 Microcolonies. 2023.
• Razgaleh SA, Wrench A, Jones A-AD. Surface Energy and Viscoelastic Characteristics of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Cutibacterium acnes Biofilm on Commercial Skin Constructs versus agar. 2023.
• Jones A-AD, Buie CR. In situ continuous electrochemical quantification of bacterial adhesion to electrically polarized metallic surfaces under shear. Biointerphases. 2022 Mar;17(2):021001.
• Cohen SE, Hashmi SM, Jones A-AD, Lykourinou V, Ondrechen MJ, Sridhar S, et al. Adapting Undergraduate Research to Remote Work to Increase Engagement. Biophysicist (Rockville, Md). 2021 Sep;2(2):28–32.
• Medina-Cruz D, Vernet-Crua A, Mostafavi E, González MU, Martínez L, Iii A-ADJ, et al. Aloe Vera-Mediated Te Nanostructures: Highly Potent Antibacterial Agents and Moderated Anticancer Effects. Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland). 2021 Feb;11(2):514.
• Jones A-A, Medina-Cruz D, Kim NYJ, Mi G, Bartomeu-Garcia C, Baranda-Pellejero L, et al. Statistical classification of dynamic bacterial growth with sub-inhibitory concentrations of nanoparticles and its implications for disease treatment. bioRxiv. 2020.
• Jones A-A. Can a Water Smart Grid Help Society Achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of Water as a Human Right? Open Engineering Inc. 2019.
• Jones AAD, Xie Z, Webster TJ. A hierarchical integration pyramid to increase translation of biomaterials based on recent successes in multiscale synthetic biomaterials research. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering. 2019 Jun 1;10:89–96.
• Jones A-AD, Buie CR. Continuous shear stress alters metabolism, mass-transport, and growth in electroactive biofilms independent of surface substrate transport. Scientific reports. 2019 Feb;9(1):2602.
• Jones A-AD, Mi G, Webster TJ. A Status Report on FDA Approval of Medical Devices Containing Nanostructured Materials. Trends in biotechnology. 2019 Feb;37(2):117–20.
• Jones AA. We stress bacteria out: Dynamic responses of bacteria to fluid, nanoparticle, and antibiotic stress. In: AfroBiotech Conference 2019. 2019. p. 22.
• Wang Q, Jones A-AD, Gralnick JA, Lin L, Buie CR. Microfluidic dielectrophoresis illuminates the relationship between microbial cell envelope polarizability and electrochemical activity. Science advances. 2019 Jan;5(1):eaat5664.
• Roy AK, Jones AAD, Webster TJ. Translational medicine and biomaterials. In: Biomaterials in Translational Medicine. 2019. p. 1–22.
• Jones A-A, Buie C. Shear stress mediates metabolism and growth in electroactive biofilms. bioRxiv. 2018.
• Roy AK, Jones AAD, Webster TJ. Translational medicine and biomaterials: Basics and relationship. In: Biomaterials in Translational Medicine: A Biomaterials Approach. 2018. p. 1–22.
• Wang Q, Jones AA, Zhang P, Lin L, Buie CR. Strong correlation between bacterial extracellular electron transport and cell envelope polarizability. In: 20th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences, MicroTAS 2016. 2016. p. 128–9.
• Jones AAD, Jones AD. Numerical simulation and verification of gas transport during an atomic layer deposition process. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing. 2014 May 1;21(1):82–90.
• Jones AAD, Buie CR. A microfluidic platform for evaluating anode substrates for microbial fuel cells. In: ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Proceedings (IMECE). 2012. p. 381–5.