Jessica Alice Feinmann Wade (born October 1988) is a British

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

in the Blackett Laboratory at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, specialising in

Raman spectroscopy Raman spectroscopy () (named after Indian physicist C. V. Raman) is a spectroscopic technique typically used to determine vibrational modes of molecules, although rotational and other low-frequency modes of systems may also be observed. Raman sp ...

. Her research investigates

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

-based organic light emitting diodes ( OLEDs). Her

public engagement Public engagement or public participation is a term that has recently been used to describe "the practice of involving members of the public in the agenda-setting, decision-making, and policy-forming activities of organizations/institutions respons ...

work in

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...

(STEM) advocates for

women in physics This article discusses women who have made an important contribution to the field of physics. Physics awards Nobel laureates * 1903 Marie Curie: "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on ...

as well as tackling systemic biases such as

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

and

racial bias on Wikipedia The English Wikipedia has been criticized for having a systemic racial bias in its coverage. This stems in part from an under-representation of people of color within its editor base. In "Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future ...

Education

The daughter of two

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

s, Wade was educated at South Hampstead High School, graduating in 2007. Her grandfather Leslie Feinmann was a physician who was born in a Jewish ghetto in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

to a Russian-speaking mother and a father of Lithuanian Jewish and German Jewish descent. She subsequently enrolled on a foundation course in art and design at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, and in 2012 completed a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

(MSci) degree in physics at

. She continued at Imperial, completing her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in 2016, where her work in

nanometrology Nanometrology is a subfield of metrology, concerned with the science of measurement at the nanoscale level. Nanometrology has a crucial role in order to produce nanomaterials and devices with a high degree of accuracy and reliability in nanomanuf ...

in organic semiconductors was supervised by Ji-Seon Kim.

Research and career

Wade's research interests are in materials science, chiral materials and

circular polarisation In electrodynamics, circular polarization of an electromagnetic wave is a polarization state in which, at each point, the electromagnetic field of the wave has a constant magnitude and is rotating at a constant rate in a plane perpendicular to ...

. , Wade is a postdoctoral

research associate Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Master's degree. In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health, the ...

plastic electronics Organic electronics is a field of materials science concerning the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of organic molecules or polymers that show desirable electronic properties such as conductivity. Unlike conventional inorga ...

in the

solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the l ...

group at Imperial College London, focusing on developing and characterising light-emitting polymer thin films, working with Alasdair Campbell and

Matthew Fuchter Matthew John Fuchter is a British chemist who is a Professor of Chemistry at Imperial College London. His research focuses on the development and application of novel functional molecular systems to a broad range of areas; from materials to medi ...

. Wade and coworkers have recently discovered how to template chiral materials at functional interfaces, paving the way toward tunable chiroptical technologies. Her research has been published in scientific journals such as the ''

Journal of Physical Chemistry C A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

'', the ''

Journal of the American Chemical Society The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ''Journal of Analytical ...

'', the '' Journal of Materials Chemistry'', ''

ACS Nano ''ACS Nano'' is a monthly, peer-reviewed, scientific journal, first published in August 2007 by the American Chemical Society. The current editor in chief is Xiaodong Chen (Nanyang Technological University). The journal publishes original research ...

,'' ''

Advanced Functional Materials ''Advanced Functional Materials'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published by Wiley-VCH. Established in February 2001, the journal began to publish monthly in 2002 and moved to 18/year in 2006, biweekly in 2008, and weekly in 2013. It has ...

'', ''

The Journal of Chemical Physics ''The Journal of Chemical Physics'' is a scientific journal published by the American Institute of Physics that carries research papers on chemical physics. '' ChemComm'' and ''

Energy & Environmental Science ''Energy & Environmental Science'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing original (primary) research and review articles. The journal covers work of an interdisciplinary nature in the biochemical and biophysical sciences and c ...

''. She has co-authored research papers with James Durrant,

Henning Sirringhaus Henning Sirringhaus is Hitachi Professor of Semiconductor device, Electron Device Physics, Head of the Microelectronics Group and a member of the Optoelectronics Group at the Cavendish Laboratory. He is also a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambr ...

, Jenny Nelson, Donal Bradley, and Ji-Seon Kim. , according to Web of Science, she has published 59 items cited 1124 times

Public engagement

Wade has contributed to public engagement to increase gender equality in

(STEM) subjects. She represented the UK on the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

funded

International Visitor Leadership Program The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is a professional exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The mission of IVLP is to offer current and emerging international leader ...

''Hidden No More'', and served on the

WISE Campaign The WISE Campaign (Women into Science and Engineering) encourages women and girls to value and pursue science, technology, engineering and maths-related courses in school or college and move on into related careers and progress. Its mission statem ...

Young Women's Board and Women's Engineering Society (WES) Council, working with teachers across the country through the ''Stimulating Physics Network'' (including keynote talks at education fairs and teacher conferences). 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". She estimates that £5m or £6m is spent in the UK to promote a scientific career for women but with little measurement of the results. 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. Wade has created new Wikipedia biographical articles to raise the profile of minorities in STEM. She told ''

Chemistry World ''Chemistry World'' is a monthly chemistry news magazine published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The magazine addresses current events in world of chemistry including research, international business news and government policy as it affects ...

'' in mid-2019 that of the 600 articles about female scientists she has written, 6 have been deleted because of the notability issue. Yet, Wade said, the site has articles about the most obscure sports players and forgotten pop songs. As of February 2020, she had written over 900 biographies on Wikipedia. By January 2021, this figure had risen to 1,200. By October 2022, it was over 1,750. Wade coordinated a team for the 6th International Women in Physics Conference, resulting in an invitation to discuss the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

(IOP) gender balance work in Germany. She also supports the engagement of school students through school activities and festivals, and the organisation of a series of events for girls at Imperial College London, which she has funded with grants from the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

(RAEng), the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

(RSC) and the

Biochemical Society The Biochemical Society is a learned society in the United Kingdom in the field of biochemistry, including all the cellular and molecular biosciences. Structure It currently has around 7000 members, two-thirds in the UK. It is affiliated with th ...

. In 2015 Wade won the science engagement activity ''

I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! is an online science enrichment activity that runs throughout term-time in the UK. School students interact with scientists in text-based live chats in themed 'Zones'. At the end of the event the school students ...

'' and received £500, which she used to run a greenlight4girls day in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London. She has also written a children's book on materials and nanoscience called ''Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small''. The book is illustrated by Melissa Castrillón and is published by Walker Books. Wade serves on the IOP London and South East Committee, the IOP Women in Physics Committee and the

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

transparency and opportunity committee at Imperial. She cites her influences as

Sharmadean Reid Sharmadean Reid (born 28 May 1984) is a British Jamaican entrepreneur. She is the founder of WAH Nails and Beautystack. She is an advocate for women's empowerment. Early life and education Reid was born into a Jamaican family with a father of I ...

, Lesley Cohen, Jenny Nelson and

Angela Saini Angela Saini (born in London, 1980) is a British science journalist, broadcaster and the author of books, of which the fourth, ''The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality'', was published in 2023. Saini has worked as a reporter and presenter fo ...

, particularly her book ''

Inferior Inferior may refer to: * Inferiority complex * An Anatomical terms of location#Superior and inferior, anatomical term of location * Inferior angle of the scapula, in the human skeleton *Inferior (book), ''Inferior'' (book), by Angela Saini * ''The ...

''. Her outreach work has been covered by NPR, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

, ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'',

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, '' Physics World'', ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'',

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

, ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'', ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

'', and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Wade was interviewed as part of

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

London Women, held on 1 December 2018. With

Ben Britton Thomas Benjamin Britton (born 18 April 1985) is a materials scientist and engineer based at The University of British Columbia. He is a specialist in micromechanics, electron microscopy and crystal plasticity. In 2014 he was awarded the Si ...

and Christopher Jackson, she co-authored ''The reward and risk of social media for academics'' in the journal ''

Nature Reviews Chemistry ''Nature Reviews Chemistry'' is monthly online-only peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. It was established in 2017. The journal contains reviews, perspectives and comments in all disciplines within chemistry. The editor ...

''.

Gender bias on Wikipedia

A controversy regarding allegations that insufficient coverage within the English-language Wikipedia is being given to women making contributions to science became widely noted when the 12 April 2019 ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' published an

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...

entitled ''The Black Hole Photo Is Just One Example of Championing Women in Science'', co-authored by Zaringhalam and Wade. In part, the article decried that previous discussions among Wikipedia's volunteer editors resulted in the biographical entries originally created by Wade for some female scientists non-inclusion on the website, one from among hundreds of articles on women scientists that Wade had contributed to that time, with perhaps approximately one percent of these submissions declined. With regard to one such article, Wade had heard about nuclear chemist

Clarice Phelps Clarice Evone Phelps () is an American nuclear chemist researching the processing of radioactive transuranic elements at the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). She was part of ORNL's team that collaborated with the Jo ...

from Kit Chapman, who had been conducting research for his book ''Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table'' (2019) with intention "to make science more accessible. I hope that looking back and seeing this cast and some of the diversity that’s reflected in the past, we can get more diversity in the future." Wade created a short Wikipedia biography of Phelps in September 2018. The deletion of that article on 11 February 2019 led to a prolonged editorial discussion and, approaching a type of dispute discouraged among the website's volunteer administrators, its repeated restoration and re-deletion. ''

'' said: 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. By January 2020, there was a consensus to restore the article, as by then new sources had become available.

Publications

Wade's publications include: * *

Awards and honours

Wade has received several awards for contributions to science, science communication, diversity, and inclusion. In 2015, 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, Wade received the Institute of Physics's

Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize The Institute of Physics awards numerous prizes to acknowledge contributions to physics research, education and applications. It also offers smaller specific subject-group prizes, such as for PhD thesis submissions. Bilateral awards * The Max B ...

for Women in Physics 2016. In 2017, Wade won the Robert Perrin Award for Materials Science from the

Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a UK engineering institution whose activities encompass the whole materials cycle, from exploration and extraction, through characterisation, processing, forming, finishing and applicatio ...

, and Imperial College's Julia Higgins Medal in recognition of her work to support gender equality. She was invited to the

interdisciplinary science Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

conference

Science Foo Camp Science Foo Camp (scifoo) is an annual of interdisciplinary scientific unconferences organized by O'Reilly Media, Digital Science, Alphabet Inc., based on an idea from Linda Stone. The event is based on the spirit and format of Foo Camp, an ev ...

at the

Googleplex The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. It is located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California. The original complex, with of office space, is the company's second la ...

in California. In 2018, Wade won the Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize for "acting as an internationally-recognised ambassador for STEM". In December she was named as one of ''

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...

'' people who mattered in science that year. She received an honourable mention in the

Wikimedian of the Year The Wikimedian of the Year is an annual award that honors Wikipedia editors and other contributors to Wikimedia projects to highlight major achievements within the Wikimedia movement, established in August 2011 by Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy ...

award by Wikipedia co-founder

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedi ...

, 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 Wikimedia UK (WMUK) is a registered charity established to support volunteers in the United Kingdom who work on Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia. As such, it is a Wikimedia chapter approved by the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns and hosts ...

. Wade was awarded the

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown. The current honour was created in 1922 to ...

(BEM) in the

2019 Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as ...

for services to gender diversity in science. Her employer honoured her that year with its Leadership Award for Societal Engagement. Also in 2019, Wade was named as the 44th 'Most Influential Woman in UK Tech' by '' Computer Weekly''. During the same year,

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

released a scientific calculator in Spain bearing Wade's picture in a series of 12 calculators commemorating historically notable female scientists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Jess 1980s births Living people 21st-century British physicists 21st-century British women scientists Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts Alumni of Imperial College London British materials scientists British Wikimedians British women physicists People educated at South Hampstead High School Recipients of the British Empire Medal Science communicators Wikipedia people Women in optics Women materials scientists and engineers