The focus of William Jones' research is cosmology —understanding the contents and evolution of the Universe. A large part of his research involves the observation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the faint afterglow left over from the Big Bang. Prior to leading SPIDER, Jones worked on several previous experimental efforts to study the properties of the CMB including the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (link is external) (WMAP), the Boomerang long duration balloon experiment, the BICEP experiment at the South Pole, and the European Space Agency's Planck satellite.

Jones earned his bachelor's degree in physics and a certificate in applied and computational mathematics from Princeton University in 1998, graduating magna cum laude. He earned his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he also was a postdoctoral scholar. He later was a scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena before returning to Princeton in 2008 as an assistant professor of physics. Jones serves as a faculty advisor in Forbes College, and has most recently taught “Introductory Physics II,” “General Physics II,” “Advanced Physics (Electromagnetism)” and “Classical Mechanics B.” A handful of undergraduates have worked in Jones’ research group nearly every summer since 2008.