Harvard Portrait: David Jones

David Jones

In college he was a varsity fencer with high-profile mentors: Simon Schama taught narrative history to Ackerman professor of the culture of medicine David S. Jones ’92, M.D. ’97, Ph.D. ’01, and Steven Jay Gould advised his history and science honors thesis on Mount Vesuvius. But geological science frustrated him—“It was studying events you would never get to observe.” Later, Cold War medical ethics captivated Jones when he studied human subjects injected with plutonium or exposed to nuclear test blasts in Nevada. Antibiotic research on the Navajo reservation in the 1950s looms large in his 2004 book (completed during his psychiatric residency), Rationalizing Epidemics: Meanings and Uses of American Indian Mortality since 1600, which illuminates the European-sourced epidemics that decimated the Native American population. Jones’s current work explores the history of coronary-artery bypass surgery and the cycles of innovation/enthusiasm/disappointment that repeat when clinical trials fail to confirm initial expectations. While on the faculty of MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society, he began teaching at Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 2007; in 2011 he was named to the new Medical School/Arts and Sciences Ackerman professorship, with a mandate to create a program in culture and medicine. He teaches social medicine to HMS students and an undergraduate course on history and medical ethics. Jones and his wife, pediatrician Elizabeth Caronna, M.D. ’97, live in Newton (where he jogs by the river) with their young son and daughter. They began dating during their microbiology class, but had first met in a medicine and literature course, which, he says, sounds “a bit more romantic.”

Click here for the September-October 2012 issue table of contents

You might also like

This Astronomer is Sounding a Warning on 'Space Junk'

As debris accumulates in low Earth orbit, the danger of destructive collisions continues to rise.

Isaac Kohlberg to Step Down as Head of Harvard Technology Development

Partnerships and licensing office could become more critical as funding cuts loom

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Most popular

Harvard Layoffs Continue, with More to Come

In the wake of federal government actions, several Harvard schools and institutes are cutting costs.

Jodie Foster Honored at Radcliffe Day

The actress and director discussed her film career and her transformative time at Yale.

Agree to Disagree

The Undergraduate asks if intellectualism is really on life support.

Explore More From Current Issue

New Harvard Overseers and HAA Directors

Alumni showed increased interest in this year’s elections.

Can an Orange a Day Stave off Depression?

A research study digs into the gut microbiome.