To AcademiaBy 1981, tiring of the managerial duties of his position at Brookhaven, and missing the hands-on research experience, Dr. Jones and Mary Trovato went into academia, moving back to the Troy area to join the Nuclear Engineering Department at his almamater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. During his seventeen years there he extended his research career into areas of ultra-compact, high power nuclear space propulsion, nonequilibrium phase change in water-cooled nuclear reactors, and electromagnetic imaging of gas-liquid flowing systems. While there, he started, and was Director of, the Center for Multiphase Research and organizer of numerous national and international symposia in his field of expertise. |
| In 1988, Mary and Owen journeyed to Japan to live and consult for 13 months, first at Hitachi, Ltd's Energy Research Laboratory, and then for nine months at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. While there, they purchased a Suzuki 550 cc "Beam" four-door sedan about the size of a kitchen table. Using this, they constantly amazed their Japanese friends by traveling widely in their country. Some of the places they visited included the northeastern coatal area famous for their hand made wooden dolls, Nikko, cradle of some of the most beautiful temples in the oriental world, the Mt. Fuji lake area, Kyoto, home of the "Golden Pavilion" temple and across the Shimonoseki Straits and into central Kyushu. In all they put almost 25,000 km on their tiny car and collected many experiences guaranteed to provide interesting discussions regarding the country and culture. |
| During this same period, Mary, known as a caring and easy-going people-person, was first departmental secretary for the Nuclear Engineering Department. She then rose quickly into administrative roles becoming Manager of Human Resources Employment at The Institute. She retired in 1987 to travel with Owen on a one-year sabbatical in Japan. It was during these years that they both obtained their NAUI SCUBA-diving certifications and their private pilot licenses. They have dived extensively in many locations including the west coast of both United States and Mexico, Hawaii and the Caribbean. Owen went on to obtain both his aircraft instrument rating and recently his commercial pilot's license. |