Antonia J. Jones facts for kids

Antonia Jane Jones (1943 – 2010) was a brilliant British scientist. She was a mathematician and a computer scientist. Her work focused on understanding numbers and how computers work.

Early Life and Education

Antonia Jones was born in 1943. She was the first person in her family to attend university. When she was a child, Antonia got polio. This illness caused her to lose both her legs when she was ten years old.

Despite this challenge, she went to the University of Reading. There, she studied mathematics and physics. She did very well, graduating with top honors. Later, she continued her studies at the University of Cambridge. She earned her PhD in 1969, specializing in number theory, which is a branch of mathematics that studies whole numbers.

After finishing her PhD, Jones worked at several universities. She joined the University of Nottingham first. Then, she became a Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London. She also spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in the United States. After that, she joined the team at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Research and Career

In the 1970s, Antonia Jones returned to the United Kingdom. She became a lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her interests began to shift from pure mathematics to computers. She started to explore how computers could understand sounds, a field called acoustic pattern recognition.

Early computers were difficult for people with physical disabilities to use. But as technology improved, it became more accessible. Jones then started her own company. Her company created special controllers for video systems.

In 1983, Jones joined Brunel University London. She taught Information Technology there. Later, she became a Professor at Cardiff University. Her special area was "Evolutionary and Neural Computing." This field explores how computers can learn and solve problems like the human brain.

Antonia Jones also found problems in banking computer systems. She discovered ways that people could commit fraud. For example, she found security weaknesses at a big bank called HSBC.

Besides her scientific research, Jones also shared her knowledge with the public. She helped with a film in 1986 called Rocinante. She was an expert on electronic data for the movie. In 1998, she contributed to the British Science Association Festival of Science. This event helps people learn about science. Jones retired from Cardiff University in 2007. She passed away on December 23, 2010.