30 Facts About Jess Wade

Jessica Alice Feinmann Wade was born on October 1988 and is a British physicist in the Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College London, specialising in Raman spectroscopy.

Jess Wade's research investigates polymer-based organic light emitting diodes.

Jess Wade's grandfather Leslie Feinmann was a physician who was born in a Jewish ghetto in Manchester to a Russian-speaking mother and a father of Lithuanian Jewish and German Jewish descent.

Jess Wade was privately educated at South Hampstead High School, graduating in 2007.

Jess Wade continued at Imperial, completing her PhD in physics in 2016, where her work in nanometrology in organic semiconductors was supervised by Ji-Seon Kim.

Jess Wade has contributed to public engagement to increase gender equality in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects.

Jess Wade represented the UK on the United States Department of State funded International Visitor Leadership Program Hidden No More, and served on the WISE Campaign Young Women's Board and Women's Engineering Society Council, working with teachers across the country through the Stimulating Physics Network.

Jess Wade has been critical of expensive campaigns to encourage girls into science where there is an implication that only a small minority would be interested, or that girls can study the "chemical composition of lipsticks and nail varnish".

Jess Wade coordinated a team for the 6th International Women in Physics Conference, resulting in an invitation to discuss the Institute of Physics gender balance work in Germany.

Jess Wade has written a children's book on materials and nanoscience called Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very Small.

Jess Wade serves on the IOP London and South East Committee, the IOP Women in Physics Committee and the Juno transparency and opportunity committee at Imperial.

Jess Wade cites her influences as Sharmadean Reid, Lesley Cohen, Jenny Nelson and Angela Saini, particularly her book Inferior.

Jess Wade was interviewed as part of TEDx London Women, held on 1 December 2018.

Jess Wade has made a large contribution to a Wikipedia campaign that encourages the creation of Wikipedia articles about notable female academics, in order to promote female role models in STEM.

Jess Wade has created new Wikipedia biographical articles to raise the profile of minorities in STEM.

On 12 April 2019, The Washington Post published an op-ed titled "The black hole photo is just one example of championing women in science", co-authored by Zaringhalam and Jess Wade, advocating for increased recognition for women who contribute to science.

Jess Wade created a short Wikipedia biography of Phelps in September 2018.

Jess Wade told Chemistry World she believes such omissions of scientific researchers from coverage in Wikipedia are regrettable, stating her impression that it accepts entries for even the most obscure popular-media figures.

Jess Wade has received several awards for contributions to science, science communication, diversity, and inclusion.

In 2015, Jess Wade was awarded the Institute of Physics Early Career Physics Communicator Prize and the Imperial College Union award for contribution to college life, and was the winner of the Colour Zone in I'm a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here, an online science engagement project run by Mangorolla CIC.

The next year, Jess Wade received the Institute of Physics's Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize for Women in Physics 2016.

In 2017, Jess Wade won the Robert Perrin Award for Materials Science from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and Imperial College's Julia Higgins Medal in recognition of her work to support gender equality.

Jess Wade was invited to the interdisciplinary science conference Science Foo Camp at the Googleplex in California.

In 2018, Jess Wade won the Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize for "acting as an internationally-recognised ambassador for STEM".

Jess Wade received an honourable mention in the Wikimedian of the Year award by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, for her "year long effort to write about underrepresented scientists and engineers on Wikipedia", and the following year was chosen as Wikimedian of the Year by her national chapter, Wikimedia UK.

Jess Wade was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to gender diversity in science.

Jess Wade's employer honoured her that year with its Leadership Award for Societal Engagement.

Also in 2019, Jess Wade was named as the 44th "Most Influential Woman in UK Tech" by Computer Weekly.

Also in 2023, Jess Wade was awarded the President's Medal for Outreach from Imperial College London for her work in promoting diversity in STEM.

In 2024, Jess Wade received a University Research Fellowship and the Rosalind Franklin Award from the Royal Society for "her achievements in functional materials and outstanding project which will support early career women scientists to pursue academic careers in materials sciences".