Alun Jones - Biography#

Alun Jones is Professor of Geography and Head of School having held senior positions at University College London and the University of Leicester, and visiting posts at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Bonn. Professor Jones is a political geographer and author of numerous books and international peer-reviewed papers on European Union governance, Europeanization and the Mediterranean, and rural transformations in France and Germany. He has held prestigious scholarships and fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust, Deutsche Akademische Austausdienst (DAAD), British Council and the Institut Francais, as well as research grants totalling in excess of €1.5 millions from the European Commission. In 2004-5 he was presented with the Edward Heath Award by the Royal Geographical Society and Institute of British Geographers for his contribution to research on EU governance. In 2006 he was made an Academician of the Learned Societies for the Social Sciences in the United Kingdom in recognition of his scholarship on the European Union. Professor Jones is on the advisory board of UCD's Dublin European Institute (DEI). Professor Jones currently supervises 4 doctoral students in the field of EU governance, Irish rural representation in Brussels, migration and rural change, and recent innovations in Irish farming communities. These are supported by competitive grants from the IRCHSS and EPA. Professor Jones' recent research focuses on the discourses surrounding EU engagements with the Mediterranean in the context of theoretical debates on Europeanization.

Recent Key Contributions:

• Member, Geographical Sciences Committee, Royal Irish Academy 2009-present
• Member, Editorial Board, Environment and Planning C (Government and Policy) 2010 -present
• Executive Committee, Dublin European Institute (DEI) 2008-present
• External Examiner, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia 2008- present
• EU Framework 7, External Assessor 2010-present
• Head of School, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin (UCD) 2007-2010
• Head of Geography, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin (UCD) 2007- present
• Chair, Research Seed Funding Committee, University College Dublin 2008-2010
• Member, University Finance Committee,University College Dublin (UCD) 2008-2010
• Head of Department, Department of Geography, University of Leicester 2005-2007
• Director of Human Geography, Department of Geography, University of Leicester 2005-2007
• Chair, Research Assessment Exercise, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leicester 2006-2007
• Chair, Social Sciences Research Committee,University of Leicester 2006-2007

• Professor Jones has supervised/ supervising 10 Ph.D students , 5 post-doctoral students and over 40 MA and MSc theses.
• He has secured over €1.8 millions of research income including:
  • 2010 EU 7th Framework 'Megapolitaine' Partner in international network agreement with UBC Canada and University of Barcelona €120,000,
  • 2007 Environmental Protection Agency Ireland ' Innovation in Irish agriculture', €80,000
  • 2002-2004 Leverhulme Trust ’EU external relations policy and the Mediterranean’, €30,800;
• 1999-2002 Co-ordinator and Principal Investigating Scientist, EU Fourth Framework Research Programme: ‘Innovation and, Diversification in European Agriculture' (€1.4 millions)

• He has refereed in excess of 100 journal articles (for all the blue chip journals including Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Environment and Planning A, Environment and Planning C, Antipode, European Urban and Regional Studies, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Rural Studies, Progress in Human Geography.
• He has reviewed more than 50 research project applications (including Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC), Leverhulme, Nuffield, British Council, and the European Commission).
• He has refereed some 20 book proposals (including prospective titles for Oxford University Press, Edward Arnold, John Wiley, Routledge, and BBC Publications).

• In the last 3 years he has given key invited papers at:
  • University of Turin (May 2011)
  • University of Mississippi (Croft Institute for International Studies)(School of Public Policy), Oxford, Mississippi (2009)
  • Association of American Geographers Annual Conferences held in Chicago, 2007 and Boston 2008
  • Royal Holloway College University of London 2008
  • Bush School of Government and Public Service, University of Texas (A and M) 2007
  • Trinity College Dublin 2007