Origins

Personal & Professional Pathways

Click presentation to see my journey into academia!

The presentation to the right was given to female undergraduate students in the PROmoting Geoscience Research, Education & SuccesS (PROGRESS) workshop held in February 2019. 

Also, listen to my interview with Dr. Katinka Bellomo on her podcast, The Climate Academy, via this link:  https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-climate-academy/s1ep-6-jhordanne-jones-1Ro_hwnUVWK/. Follow her on Twitter at @katinka_bellomo for more interviews with excellent weather and climate scientists.

JJones_Pathways-compressed.pdf

From the Caribbean to the World

My graduate journey started at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica where I grew up. While I started with a background in Physics, I eventually ventured into Climate Studies with the Climate Studies Group at UWI Mona (CSGM). This is where I learned about atmospheric and climate dynamics and started my research on hurricanes. Being a Caribbean citizen, I've lived through some pretty notable hurricane events, like Hurricane Ivan 2004, whose eye passed directly south of my hometown.


During my Master's studies, I projected end-of-century hurricane frequencies for the North Atlantic and assessed which statistical schemes produced significant changes in projections. Aside from my studies, I carried out climate variability and change assessments for various industries in Jamaica and contributed to both national and regional projects like the State of the Jamaican Climate 2015 Report.

In 2017, I received the Fulbright Foreign Student Award and was able to attend Colorado State University and join the Bell Research Group.  During my time at CSU, I've represented my research group and department in media interviews as part of CSU's seasonal hurricane forecast team. I love talking about past and present hurricane activity and how the trends we observe now play into future hurricane events. 

Photo courtesy of Naufal Razin.


After graduating from CSU at the end of 2021, I moved to Indiana, USA for a postdoc position at Purdue University. I'm currently working with Dan Chavas' Climate and Extreme Weather Laboratory (CEWL) research group. During this time, I was also awarded the NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow (Class 32) with Dan as my host advisor.