PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Matthew Laurence Jones

Also known as Matthew L. Jones, Matthew Jones, Matt Jones

Matthew Laurence Jones is a historian of science whose work traces the histories of data, computing, and artificial intelligence. He studied at Harvard and Cambridge, taught at Columbia for 23 years, and wrote books on the Scientific Revolution and calculating machines. With Chris Wiggins, he coauthored How Data Happened and reviewed AI's history in the American Historical Review. As of October 2026, he is Princeton's Smith Family Professor of History.

Works
42
Citations
376
h-index
9
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1972

    Born in 1972

    He is born in 1972.

  2. 1994–2000

    Harvard and Cambridge degrees

    He earns a B.A. from Harvard in 1994, an M.Phil. from Cambridge in 1995, and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 2000.

  3. 2000–2023

    Teaching at Columbia

    He joins Columbia's History faculty in 2000 and serves as James R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization before moving to Princeton in 2023.

  4. 2006–2016

    Books on science and calculation

    He publishes The Good Life in the Scientific Revolution in 2006. Reckoning with Matter, subtitled Calculating Machines, Innovation, and Thinking about Thinking from Pascal to Babbage, appears in 2016.

  5. 2023

    A Columbia course on data

    At Columbia, he teaches Data: Past, Present, and Future with Chris Wiggins in 2023, a course that follows data-empowered algorithms from statistics to surveillance capitalism.

  6. 2023

    How Data Happened

    With Chris Wiggins, he coauthors How Data Happened in 2023, a history of data's technical, political, and ethical impact.

  7. 2023

    An AI history review

    He publishes the review article “AI in History” in the American Historical Review in 2023.

  8. As of October 2026

    Smith Family Professor at Princeton

    He joins Princeton as Smith Family Professor of History in 2023. In June 2026, he publishes “From Gaming to Science: How the Graphical Processor Unit Became a Supercomputer.” He holds the professorship as of October 2026.

Career

  1. Since 2023Princeton UniversitySmith Family Professor of History
  2. 2000–2023Columbia UniversityHistory faculty
  3. Columbia UniversityJames R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization

Education

  1. 2000Harvard UniversityPh.D.
  2. 1995University of CambridgeM.Phil.
  3. 1994Harvard UniversityB.A.

From the biography.

Checked career sources: en.wikipedia.org.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Matthew L. Jones - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Matthew L. Jones press.uchicago.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. Spring 2023 History-APMA UN2901 section 001 doc.sis.columbia.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. How Data Happened - Description | W. W. Norton & Company Ltd. wwnorton.co.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. Matthew Laurence Jones - Princeton University collaborate.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Matthew Jones Studies the History of Data, Surveillance, and AI | Princeton Alumni Weekly paw.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.