Biographical Sketch
Hardin Blair Jones was born on June 11, 1914 in Los Angeles, California, son of Henry Hardin and Maude Blair Jones. He attended secondary schools in Glendale and received his A.B. in zoology and chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1937. He then came to the University of California at Berkeley where he obtained his M.A. in 1939 and his Ph.D. in physiology in 1944, with a dissertation on the uptake of radioactive phosphorus by neoplastic tissue. In 1946 he joined the Berkeley faculty and in 1954 became professor of medical physics and physiology. He was chairman of the Graduate Group in Biophysics, Medical physics and Bioradiology from 1956 to 1962 and then again from 1964 to 1968. He also held a joint appointment as assistant director of Donner Laboratory from 1948 to 1976, and, from 1959 to 1960, as associate director of the Institute of Human Development. His full schedule also included speaking engagements, articles about the student protests at Berkeley in the 1960s, and duties as San Francisco Asian Art Commissioner. His research covered a wide range of subjects including the physiological effects of high altitude, low-level radiation, smoking, alcohol and various drugs; cancer treatment; cardiovascular disease; the aging process; and energy development.
He died suddenly on February 16, 1978 after an extensive tour of Australia where he and his wife, Helen Cook Jones, were lecturing on the harmful effects of drugs such as marijuana.
From the guide to the Hardin B. Jones Papers, 1937-1978, (The Bancroft Library)
