This hugely prestigious honour was awarded to Jonathan for his pioneering work advancing our knowledge of the roles airborne particles play in our atmosphere, in the airborne transmission of disease and in the delivery of drugs to the lungs.
Jonathan is the director of both the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Aerosol Science and the Bristol Aerosol Research Centre. His group has developed innovative techniques to isolate and manipulate individual particles using light or charge, and study their physical and chemical transformations using optical and spectroscopic tools.
His studies of aerosols have provided important insights into the viscosity and surface tension of liquid droplets, the mass and heat transfer occurring during evaporation or condensation, and the rates of heterogeneous chemistry. Alongside this, he has led human studies of exhaled aerosols, leading to a better understanding of aerosol-generating procedures in clinical practice. His work has also clarified the factors that regulate the airborne survival of bacteria and viruses.
"I am honoured to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society for the contribution I have made to understanding aerosols and airborne particles," said Jonathan. "I have had the privilege of working with some wonderful collaborators over my career, many of them in Bristol, and their contributions have been absolutely key to the advances we have made."
Jonathan's election as a Royal Society Fellow follows the recent success of School of Chemistry colleagues Professor Jonathan Clayden and Professor Dek Woolfson, who both received Fellowships in 2025.