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Classroom Profile

Kenneth Lester Jones
The Michigan Alumnus 42

KENNETH L. JONES, Ph.D.'33, Professor of Botany and Chairman of the 
Department, has been a member of the
 facuity since 1929. What he enjoys
 most of all, by his own confession, is 
the teaching of science to non-science
 students, primarily the beginners. His 
field of specialization is soil microbiology, and he is especially interested 
in Streptomyces, the microbe that pro
duces streptomycin. Dr. Jones is cred
ited with the discovery of a new species 
of Streptomyces that produces vitamin
 B12, and is now in commercial produc
tion. He is the author of papers on
 Streptomyces, as well as on the condi
tions that control male and female 
flowers.

Born December 3, 1905, at 
Keweenaw Bay, Mich., he earned his 
A.B. degree at Syracuse University. 
He is a member of Phi Sigma, Sigma
 Xi, the Michigan Academy of Science,
 Bacteriological Society of America, the
 American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Botanical
 Society of America. He is Chairman of 
the Teaching Division of the latter
 organization. Besides these activities,
 Dr. Jones has served for many years 
as an academic counselor and as a 
member of the Scholarship Committee
 of the College of Literature, Science
 and the Arts. Currently he is a mem
ber of the Executive Committee of the
 Biological Station, and is Chairman of 
the Teaching Section of the Univer
sity's Division of Biological Sciences.


During 1948-50, he was engaged in a
 research project for Commercial Solvents, on antibiotics. Aside from his 
academic work, Dr. Jones has been
 active in the Methodist church's Wes
ley Foundation, and has been Chair
man of the Board of Trustees of the
 Foundation. He is married to the for
mer Wilma Oppenborn, and they have
 two children — a son, Roland, now a
 Freshman in the University School of 
Music, and a daughter, Hannah Jones 
Chamberlin.