Cynthia M. Jones received the Outstanding Faculty Research Award at the Faculty Awards and Retirement Dinner April 29.

The award, which includes a $1,000 prize, is sponsored by the Office of Research, Economic Development and Graduate Studies.

Jones has gained an international reputation in fisheries science largely through research conducted at Old Dominion.

This research has included statistical approaches to the collection and analysis of fisheries data, life history, strategies of important fish species in the Chesapeake Bay and interpreting the geochemistry of the ear bones of fish relating to their habitat history.

Her work on the chemistry of ear bones, or otoliths, of fish has resulted in 10 years of continuous funding from the Biological Oceanography Program of the National Science Foundation. Otoliths, which absorb materials from the water in which fish live, can be analyzed, providing a wealth of information about the creatures' habitats and migration patterns.

Since 1987, Jones has been principal investigator on research grants totaling more than $4.5 million.

Jones also served as principal investigator for a $840,000 Major Research Instrumentation Grant from the National Science Foundation, which will be used for the purchase of a high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. The device can be used to conduct detailed analyses of otoliths.

"Dr. Jones has been a highly productive member of the department . . . for the past six years," Simon R. Thorrold, research associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, said in his letter of nomination. "However, her research accomplishments during the past year have been stellar, even by her own high standards."

Jones received her doctorate in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island in 1984. She came to Old Dominion in 1986 as an assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography. Jones later became an associate professor and, most recently, professor, in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Jones represents the United States on the Scientific Council to the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization and is a member of the committee on improving the collection and use of fisheries data and the committee reviewing Northeast fishery stock assessments, both convened by the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council.

She recently received a Fulbright Fellowship to continue her work linking otolith chemistry to models of marine fish populations with colleagues at the University of Sydney, Australia.

- James J. Lidington