Bruce Jones, chief scientist for geography, U.S. Geological Survey
'95 PhD Biological Sciences
You may not know where he is, but he probably knows where you are.
Since May, Jones has been chief scientist for geography at the U.S. Geological Survey headquarters in Reston, Va. It's the nation's largest agency for civilian mapping and water, earth, and biological sciences. It's his job to put humans back on the map, showing where we intersect with the land -- or sometimes collide. His work in assessing risks and reducing natural hazards guides decision makers on land-use policies.
"In geography there's a strong commitment to making people's lives better," Jones says. "We deal with people and lives and property, as well as the ecosystem. Geography sees them as integrated.
"Look at what's happened with flooding, fires, hurricanes, volcanoes -- the last few years have been pretty devastating. The challenge is to make the science useful by reducing the risks to hazards."
Avoiding Hot Spots
Mapping out our vulnerability requires integration of data from biology, geology, geography, and water. That's where Jones' background in biology and ecology serves him well -- geography is the crossroads of several strands of science, putting people into the landscape and looking at spatial patterns. The data that comes out of USGS studies may provide options for smart growth or suggest changes to building codes in disaster "hot spots."
Federal and state agencies charged with setting land-use policies and building codes are major consumers of the information. Insurance companies develop their own risk assessments from it, such as outlining flood plains. And organizations such as the Nature Conservancy are clients as well.
"We're not in the business of telling people what to do," Jones says. "It's different from the regulatory approach. The idea is, if we provide good data and tools, planners will want to make good decisions."
Saving Money and the Environment
Jones' office also works to protect the environment from hazards both natural and manmade. One of his major projects now is using satellite imagery to determine how U.S. land cover has changed since the 1970s. That's water, forest, cropland -- anything that can be remotely detected from the sky. The researchers are looking for trends and potential drivers of change.
Since 2002, Jones has teamed with scientists from Europe and Australia to assess watershed conditions across the continents.
Remote sensing is an area of expertise for Jones, who also used the technology in his 18 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There his research focused on environmental stressors such as contaminants, land use, and habitat change.
One of his major accomplishments saved New York City from building a multibillion-dollar water filtration system. Jones initiated and provided the research design for a project that eventually showed the city could spend far less money to protect an upstate watershed from development by strategically buying lands in sensitive areas. If they left the land alone, the water would stay clean by itself.
Returning for a 'Brain Boost'
It was while working at the EPA that Jones decided to get his doctorate at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ in biology, his first love. He wanted to be a scientist, like the ones in the sci-fi movies he loved to watch. At the age of 9 he visited a reptile farm and got hooked on snakes; eventually he became a herpetologist.
Returning to school for his doctorate gave him a "brain boost," he says. He found it refreshing to set aside his EPA work to study reptiles again with mentor Brett Riddle, professor of biological sciences.
Riddle and the others on his Ph.D. committee -- Dan Thompson and Stan Smith of biological sciences, and Fred Bachhuber in geology -- all influenced him significantly, Jones says. Riddle was new to 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ when Jones joined the program, and Jones was his first doctoral candidate. Riddle remembers Jones going out in the field with "his army of sons and his sons' friends" to sample the horned lizards he was studying. There Riddle witnessed Jones' talent for integrating diverse strands of information -- just what Jones has been called on to do at USGS.
"One of the things that was always fun about working with Bruce is that he was very receptive to any new ideas," Riddle says. "He could see how they might be blended together and synthesized into new ways of thinking."
While some in his profession might become weary of travelling, Jones relishes the jaunts. "Some people have a bird checklist," he says. "I have an ecosystem checklist. My goal is to stand in every bio type on the continent before I go on. I'm about two-thirds of the way through."
The desire to explore was a gift from his father, an engineer who held patents on some of the first paper mills. "He was a real traveler and very adventuresome. Being taken to different places as a child really piques your interest in discovery," Jones says. "The reason I'm in science is because I have a hunger for discovery."
