Mark Jones (B.S. Chemistry ’74, B.S. ChemE ’76) has been a donor to the chemical engineering department for 40 consecutive years. An alumnus of both chemistry and chemical engineering, Mark has been thoughtful to split his philanthropy between both units. He is not only generous, but also a savvy philanthropic investor. Mark has spent his career at ExxonMobil, where he has been able to amplify the impact of his giving through the company’s matching gift program. In 2013, he leveraged his ExxonMobil match, as well as a university match sponsored by the ARCS Foundation that year, to endow a new fellowship in chemistry. The matching dollars effectively quadrupled the impact of his initial investment.

This year, Mark connected with chemical engineering chair Jim Pfaendtner and learned of the department’s goal to bolster support for Ph.D. students. Although Mark did not do graduate work in the department, he wanted to give back to ChemE in a meaningful way, as he did with chemistry. “My UW education has provided me the opportunity to live and work all over the world,” he said. “I’ve worked with brilliant people, made wonderful professional and personal friends, and worked on some of the most challenging and technically advanced aspects of oil and gas production and development.”

Through the support of a new university-wide matching program to aid graduate student recruitment and retention, Mark once again leveraged a double match to establish a term fellowship in ChemE that will support 1-2 Ph.D. students per year. The department will be thrilled to introduce Mark to the first Jones Fellow in the next academic year.

“My UW experience challenged me to never stop learning,” he said. Now, he’s committed to helping others to meet their educational goals, as well.

If you are interested in learning about the university’s current matching initiative for gifts to support Ph.D. students, please contact Kaitlin Colleary, Associate Director of Advancement, at 206-685-6192 or kaitcoll@uw.edu.