User:SNAPEERTURTOGER/Lovell A. Jones

Molecular endocrinologist Lovell A. Jones was born January 12, 1949 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Age 74 years

He attended the University of California, Berkeley where he received his Ph.D. degree in the field of zoology, with an emphasis on endocrinology and tumor biology. Upon completing his Ph.D., Jones worked as a post-doctoral fellow/instructor in the department of physiology and obstetrics, gynecology & reproductive sciences at the University of California Medical Center at San Francisco.

Career

Lovell Jones, PhD, is currently Founder of the HDEART Consortium, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Promotion & Community Health Sciences at Texas A&M School of Public Health and Research Professor at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. Upon on his retirement. Dr. Jones became the first African American to be awarded Emeritus Professor status at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as well as at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston, making him the first African American in the University of Texas System to hold dual Emeritus Status.

Dr. Jones has more than 35 years of experience in addressing minority health and the health of the underserved. As a scientist, he has also done extensive research into the relationship between hormones, diet and endocrine responsive tumors and has presented his work both nationally and internationally. He has edited one of the few comprehensive textbooks on this subject: Minorities & Cancer. Dr. Jones has either chaired or co-chaired numerous major events regarding the underserved and cancers, including the American Cancer Society South Central U.S. Regional Hearings on Cancer and the Poor and the1st National African Cancer Education meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. Dr. Jones is co-author of the congressional resolution designating the third full week in April as "National Minority Cancer Awareness Week." For his work, the NIH/National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities was awarded him its Director’s Award for Excellence in Health Disparities. Dr. Jones has also received the Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award and was selected as one of the top African American Scientist in America by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Jones has been awarded either as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co- PI approximately $40 million in research and/ or educational grants.

In January 2000, Dr. Jones was named the first director of the congressionally mandated Center for Research on Minority Health (CRMH), a multidisciplinary center whose aims were to a) foster research that addresses the causes of health disparities and translates scientific results back to the communities affected by those disparities; b) encourage minority students to pursue careers in the biomedical sciences; and c) increase recruitment and retention of minority and medically underserved populations into clinical trials.

In 2002, Jones received the Humanitarian Award from the American Cancer Society and was honored on the floor by the U.S. House of Representatives for his work. Jones was awarded the NIH/NICMHD Director’s Award for Health Disparities Excellence in Research, Policy & Practice. He received the 2012 Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award from the American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, as well as the NAACP Unsung Hero Award. In September 2013, upon his retirement from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Jones became the first African American to be honored by the University of Texas System with Professor Emeritus status at Anderson. He then became the first African American in the University of Texas System to be awarded a second title of Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 2014.

Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is married to Marion C. Jones, and they have two children and three grandchildren.

Refrences

The History Makers