Andrew Jones

Why an honorary doctorate?

Andrew Jones received an honorary doctorate from the VUB on 20 April 2023. He enjoys international recognition as a leading researcher into, among other things, the causes of exercise intolerance in healthy people and people with disabilities, the kinetics of respiratory oxygen exchange during exercise, and exercise physiology and nutrition during endurance exercise. He has received several scientific awards and has extensive experience in coaching elite athletes.

“It’s those ultimate limits in terms of how fast people can run and what keeps them from going faster that continue to fascinate me.”

His career

Some call Prof Jones “Andy Beetroot”, because he was the first to demonstrate that beetroot juice positively affects submaximal performance during exercise. He also worked on the Breaking2 project, where he coached Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge to run a marathon in under two hours.

Jones received his PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Brighton in 1994. After interludes at the University of California, where he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in respiratory physiology and medicine, and at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he became a professor, he joined the University of Exeter.

His expertise

Jones, who was himself an impressive runner, is internationally recognised for his expertise that is often relevant to elite sport. First, the control of and constraints on the oxidative metabolism of human skeletal muscle. Second, his research into the causes of exercise intolerance in health and disease. Exercise intolerance occurs when a little physical or mental exertion leads to worsening of symptoms; a relapse manifested by, among other things, a feeling of exhaustion. Third, respiratory physiology; essentially, the workings and function of breathing. And finally, the relationship between nutrition and performance in relation to endurance sports.

Honorary Doctor Jones heads a prestigious lab and has an impressive list of publications and citations to his name. He is also editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Sport Science and a member of the editorial boards of several other leading journals in the field of exercise science.