College: Jesus College
Site: Old Road Campus
Research Building: Botnar Research Centre
Bea is a Glasstone Research Fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. She completed her BA and MSci in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in Materials Science. For her PhD, Bea was on a joint programme between the University of Cambridge and Diamond Light Source (the UK’s national synchrotron facility, located in Harwell, Oxfordshire). During her doctoral work, she explored how light-responsive surfactant assemblies, such as liquid crystals and micelles, could be harnessed for solar-energy storage, diffusion control, and targeted molecular delivery.
Following her PhD, Bea was granted an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship where she developed photoswitchable DNA-based nanomaterials for drug delivery and diagnostic applications, in collaboration between the departments of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and Materials Science at Cambridge.
Bea moved to Oxford in October 2026 to undertake a Glasstone Research Fellowship in Engineering Science and Junior Research Fellowship at Jesus College. She is currently developing new ultrasound-responsive nanoparticles for drug delivery.
Controlled drug delivery
Stimuli-responsive materials
Therapy and drug delivery
BUBBL group
Light-Responsive Molecular Release from Cubosomes Using Swell-Squeeze Lattice Control. B. E. Jones, E. A. Kelly, N. Cowieson, G. Divitini and R. C. Evans*, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, 144, 42, 19532 – 19541. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c08583
Phase behaviour of light-responsive lyotropic liquid crystals for molecular solar thermal energy storage. B. E. Jones, Z. Wang, M. A. Zwijnenberg, C. J. C. Edwards-Gayle, K. Moth-Poulsen, N. Cowieson and R. C. Evans.* J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2025, 147, 32, 29349-29358. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c09267
Understanding X-ray-induced isomerisation in photoswitchable surfactant assemblies. B. E. Jones,* C. Blayo, J. L. Greenfield, M. J. Fuchter, N. Cowieson and R. C. Evans.* Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 2005-2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3762/bjoc.20.176
Light-Driven Hexagonal-to-Cubic Phase Switching in Arylazopyrazole Lyotropic Liquid Crystals. B. E. Jones, J. L. Greenfield, N. Cowieson, M. J. Fuchter* and R. C. Evans*, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 18, 12315-12319. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c02709
Developing an in-situ LED Irradiation System for Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering at B21, Diamond Light Source. B. E. Jones, A. Fitzpatrick, K. Fowell, C. J. C. Edwards-Gayle, N. Khunti, K. Inoue, S. Daniels, E. Williams, C. Blayo, R. C. Evans and N. Cowieson*, J. Synchrotron Radiat. 2024, 31, 763-770. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577524003205
Professor Eleanor Stride - Academic
- Katharine Burr Blodgett Thesis Prize. RSC/SCI Joint Colloids Group (2025)
- Doctoral Prize Fellowship. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (2024)
- Roscoe Medal, Gold Prize for Chemistry. STEM for Britain (2023)