Dr Jonathan Knowles

Assistant Professor

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

Jonathan Knowles is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry in the Department of Applied Sciences.

Jonathan graduated from Durham University in 2005 and remained at Durham to complete his PhD under the supervision of Professor Andy Whiting. He then spent two years in an industrial research position before moving to the position of Research Officer within the Booker-Milburn group at the University of Bristol, working on synthetic and mechanistic projects in the areas of photochemistry and palladium catalysis. In 2019 he was appointed to his current role at Northumbria University where his research interests include transition metal catalysis, synthetic photochemistry, flow chemistry and the synthesis of bioactive molecules.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Organic Synthesis; Palladium Catalysis; Organosilicon Chemistry; Organoboron Chemistry; Bioactive Synthesis; Reaction Mechanism; Physical Organic Chemistry

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Pd-Catalyzed Cascade Reactions of Aziridines: One-step Access to Complex Tetracyclic Amines, Knowles, J., Steeds, H., Schwarz, M., Latter, F., Booker-Milburn, K. 2 Jul 2021, In: Organic Letters
Rapid Access to Azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes by a Tandem Diverted Tsuji–Trost Process, Steeds, H., Knowles, J., Yu, W., Richardson, J., Cooper, K., Booker-Milburn, K. 11 Nov 2020, In: Chemistry - A European Journal
A Rapid Synthetic Approach to the ABCD Core of the Stemona Alkaloids, Connelly, R., Knowles, J., Booker-Milburn, K. 4 Jan 2019, In: Organic Letters
Using Batch Reactor Results to Calculate Optimal Flow Rates for the Scale-Up of UV Photochemical Reactions, Knowles, J., Elliott, L., Stacey, C., Booker-Milburn, K. 1 Feb 2018, In: Reaction Chemistry and Engineering
Real-Time Biological Annotation of Synthetic Compounds, Gerry, C., Hua, B., Wawer, M., Knowles, J., Nelson, S., Verho, O., Dandapani, S., Wagner, B., Clemons, P., Booker-Milburn, K., Boskovic, Z., Schreiber, S. 20 Jul 2016, In: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Conformationally Driven 2- and 3-Photon Cascade Processes in the Stereoselective Photorearrangement of Pyrroles, Koovits, P., Knowles, J., Booker-Milburn, K. 4 Nov 2016, In: Organic Letters
Unusually Facile Thermal Homodienyl-[1,5]-Hydrogen Shift Reactions in Photochemically Generated Vinyl Aziridines, Knowles, J., Booker-Milburn, K. 1 Aug 2016, In: Chemistry - A European Journal
Batch versus Flow Photochemistry: A Revealing Comparison of Yield and Productivity, Elliott, L., Knowles, J., Koovits, P., Maskill, K., Ralph, M., Lejeune, G., Edwards, L., Robinson, R., Clemens, I., Cox, B., Pascoe, D., Koch, G., Eberle, M., Berry, M., Booker-Milburn, K. 10 Nov 2014, In: Chemistry - A European Journal

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Invited talk: Catalytic Ring Expansion of Allylic Amines: Stereochemistry and Mechanism 2026
Membership of committee: Royal Society of Chemistry Heterocyclic and Synthesis Committee (External organisation) 2025
Organising a conference, workshop, ...: RSC Organic Division North East Regional Meeting 2023 2023

PGR Supervision

Grace Robson Design and evaluation of a new class of fluorescent cellular probes for high content imaging Start Date: 01/10/2026
Matthew Stebbings Computational Targeting of Dye Compounds for Optical Analysis Start Date: 15/09/2026

Qualifications

Chemistry PhD September 01 2008