I began my life in the Great South-East of Queensland as many young geologists to-be do: watching Jurassic Park and fervently wishing I could go there and see the dinosaurs. To achieve this I decided in my teenage years, after a brief flirtation with the ideas of archaeology (my initials are I Jones after all) and marine biology, to dedicate my life to Geological science. What came from that was an evolution in my interests from "Make Dinosaurs Real (Again)" to volcanoes, plate tectonics and all of the weird and wonderful things that came along with them.

After finishing my PhD in 2018, I turned my attention to my one true love: Science. As I aspire to support scientific research in all its applications and enjoy characterising new and interesting materials down microscopes and on spectroscopic machinery, I side-stepped directly into Chemical Engineering and then hop-skipped and jumped into X-Ray crystallography. At UWA, I honed the characterisation, microscopy and spectroscopy skills I began to develop as part of my PhD, and added extra XRD skills, mostly to crush crystals to riduculous pressures - all in the name of science.

In late 2024, I crossed the forbidden river to Curtin to return to geology, hopefully parsing out the mysteries of weird and unique volcanism using my love of instrumentation. Who says you can't make a successful career out of being distracted by every shiny new thing that comes your way?

Alas, my dream of dinosaurs is still unfulfilled, although I hear we can grow chickens with aligator faces now. Given the state of the world, maybe "Mostly Creataceous Park (In real life!)" is best left unexplored.