Professor Matthew Jones: Originally from Reno, Nevada, Matthew Jones is the James R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization in the Department of History. He is chair of Contemporary Civilization and the chair of the Committee on the Core. He serves on the University Senate, where he co-chairs the IT committee (which does not as a matter of course fix your printer in the middle of the night). Alongside core courses, he teaches history of science and technology, especially courses focusing on Early Modern Europe and recent information technologies. This summer he taught programming to aspiring data journalists. Having finished a study on calculating machines from Pascal to Babbage, he's working on the history of data mining from the 1960s onward and on the development of surveillance culture. He studied at Harvard and Cambridge. His awards include the Lenfest award for teaching at Columbia, a Guggenheim fellowship, alongside funding from the Mellon Foundation and the NSF.

Liz Lee: An independent developmental editor, Liz Lee is an avid maker and enjoys photography and the textile arts. Educated at Stanford and Harvard with degrees in human biology, history, and history of science, Liz studied abroad in Oxford and did research in Paris and London. A residential education veteran, who once also lived in a dorm with a faculty family, Liz is excited to share the (tamer) joys of college residential life with her brood. As one of two college former scatter band members in the family, she has been known to follow when her oldest daughter hears horns and drums and says, “I think it’s the Columbia Band! Let’s go!”

As a family, the Jones-Lees enjoy exploring New York City, making art, robotics, cooking, board games, biking, swimming, singing, and stringed instruments (cello, and more recently, the guitar and ukulele). We look forward to spending time with the East Campus community and to new experiences intellectual or silly (so say Sophie and Athena).