Robert M. Jones

Dr. Jones is Emeritus Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech,

Blacksburg, Virginia. He received a B.S.C.E. in 1960, an M.S. in Civil Engineering in 1961, and a Ph.D.

in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in 1964, all from the University of Illinois. From 1964-1966, in the

Structural Mechanics Branch of NASA Langley Research Center, he performed buckling research on

stiffened metal and composite shells while a First Lieutenant and Captain in the Army. At The

Aerospace Corporation, San Bernardino, California during part of 1964 and from 1966-1970, he was

involved in research, planning, and technical direction for reentry vehicle nosetip thermal stress analysis

and shell buckling and stress analysis involving high-temperature composite materials. From 1970-1981

at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, he developed and taught graduate courses in mechanics

of composite materials, buckling, energy methods, and plasticity in addition to performing composite

materials research sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Air Force Materials

Laboratory, and the Office of Naval Research. In 1981, he joined Virginia Tech teaching graduate

courses on mechanics of composite materials, elasticity, plasticity, buckling, energy methods, and

analysis and design of composite structures as well as performing composite materials research

sponsored by the Naval Surface Weapons Center, NASA Langley Research Center, and Milliken.

In his long-term research efforts, he is known for realistically modeling the nonlinear stress-strain

behavior of metallic and composite materials and applying those models to analysis of the behavior of

fundamental structural elements such as bars, plates, and shells as well as more complex structures. All

models and applications are always addressed with due consideration of measured behavior and, in

many cases, directly correlated with experimental results. The more complex structures include

eccentric stiffening concepts for shells such as booster interstage structures, the thermal stress disk test,

and aerodynamically heated, surface-eroding reentry vehicle shells and nosetips. He developed the

Nadai-Jones stress-strain curve model for high-strain behavior at elevated temperatures to treat plastic

thermal buckling of bars and plates with temperature-dependent material properties.

He is a past Chairman of the AIAA Structures Technical Committee and a Fellow of AIAA. He was

a member of the ASME Structures and Materials Committee and is a Fellow of ASME. For the American

Society for Composites, he was Vice President during 1992 and 1993, President during 1994 and 1995,

Past President during 1996 and 1997, is a Fellow, and received the ASC 2002 Composite Materials

Award and the 2008 Distinguished Research Award. He is the author of nearly one hundred publications

including Mechanics of Composite Materials, 2nd Edition, 1999, which has been in print since 1975. His

Buckling of Bars, Plates, and Shells was published in 2006, Deformation Theory of Plasticity was

published in 2009, and Design of Composite Structures was published in 2015. He edited Valery V.

Vasilievʼs Mechanics of Composite Structures (1993) and Composite Pressure Vessels (2009). He has

presented over eighty short courses on mechanics of composite materials and design of composite

structures. He also played a major role in establishing the Virginia Tech Center for Composite Materials

and Structures in 1982 and served as Director during 1982-83 and 1984-87.