Jess Wade facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jess Wade
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Wade in 2017
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Jessica Alice Feinmann Wade
October 1988 (age 36) Manchester, England
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| Education | South Hampstead High School Chelsea College of Arts |
| Alma mater | Imperial College London (MSc, PhD) |
| Known for | Plastic electronics Public engagement WISE Campaigning |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Materials science Chiral materials Circular polarisation |
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
| Thesis | Nanometrology for controlling and probing organic semiconductors and devices (2016) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ji-Seon Kim |
Jessica Alice Feinmann Wade (born in October 1988) is a British physicist who works at Imperial College London. She studies how light interacts with materials using a method called Raman spectroscopy. Her main research focuses on polymer-based organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), which are special materials that glow when electricity passes through them.
Besides her science work, Jess Wade is also very active in encouraging more girls and women to get involved in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She works to fix unfairness, like gender and racial bias, especially in science.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jess Wade was born in October 1988. Her parents were both doctors. She went to South Hampstead High School and finished in 2007. After that, she studied art and design at the Chelsea College of Arts.
In 2012, Jess earned a Master of Science (MSci) degree in physics from Imperial College London. She continued her studies there and completed her PhD in physics in 2016. For her PhD, she studied tiny measurements (called nanometrology) in materials known as organic semiconductors. Her supervisor was Ji-Seon Kim.
Research and Discoveries
Jess Wade's research explores different areas of materials science. This field is about understanding and creating new materials. She is especially interested in chiral materials, which are materials that look different from their mirror image, like your left and right hands. She also studies circular polarisation, which is a special way light can twist.
As of 2025, Jess Wade is a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London. This means she is a scientist who has finished her PhD and is doing more research. She works in the solid-state physics group, focusing on plastic electronics. She helps create and study thin films made of light-emitting polymers. These films are used in things like flexible screens.
Jess and her team have found new ways to arrange chiral materials at important surfaces. Her work has been published in many scientific papers. By November 2022, she had published 59 articles that were cited over 1,124 times by other scientists.
Helping Others in Science
Jess Wade is very passionate about making science fair for everyone. She works to increase the number of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. She represented the UK in a program called Hidden No More in the United States. She also served on the Young Women's Board for the WISE Campaign, which supports women in STEM.
Jess believes that money spent on encouraging girls in science should be used wisely. She thinks it's important to measure if these programs actually work. She has helped teachers across the UK through the Stimulating Physics Network.
She helped organize the 6th International Women in Physics Conference. She also runs events for girls at Imperial College London, getting funding from groups like the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2015, she won an online science competition called I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here!. She used her prize money to host a "greenlight4girls" day at Imperial College.
Jess has also written a children's book called Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small. It teaches kids about materials and nanoscience, which is the study of incredibly tiny things. The book was illustrated by Melissa Castrillón.
Her work to promote science has been featured by many news outlets, including the BBC, Sky News, and Nature. In 2018, she was interviewed for TEDx London Women. She also wrote an article about how social media can help scientists. In May 2025, she was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 show In Our Time, discussing the physicist Lise Meitner.
Wikipedia Contributions
Jess Wade is well-known for her work on Wikipedia. She helps create new articles about important female scientists and engineers. Her goal is to make sure that more women in STEM have their stories told online. This helps provide role models for young people.
By February 2024, Jess had written over 2,100 biographies on Wikipedia. She believes it's important to highlight the contributions of people from all backgrounds in science.
In 2019, Jess co-wrote an article for The Washington Post about recognizing women in science. This article was published after the first image of a black hole was released. It talked about how social media and Wikipedia can help give credit to women's scientific achievements, like those of Katie Bouman, who helped create the image.
Jess has also spoken about challenges in getting women scientists recognized on Wikipedia. She noted that some articles she created about female scientists were deleted because they didn't meet Wikipedia's rules for "notability" at first. However, she continues to work to improve coverage for underrepresented scientists.
Awards and Recognition
Jess Wade has received many awards for her contributions to science, her efforts to communicate science, and her work promoting diversity.
- In 2015, she won the Institute of Physics Early Career Physics Communicator Prize.
- In 2016, she received the Jocelyn Bell Burnell Medal and Prize for Women in Physics.
- In 2017, she won the Robert Perrin Award for Materials Science and Imperial College's Julia Higgins Medal for her work on gender equality. She was also invited to the Science Foo Camp conference at the Googleplex in California.
- In 2018, she received the Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize for being an international ambassador for STEM. She was also named one of Nature's 10 most important people in science that year.
- She received an honorable mention for the Wikimedian of the Year award from Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. The next year, she was chosen as Wikimedian of the Year by Wikimedia UK.
- In 2019, Jess was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for her services to gender diversity in science. Imperial College London also gave her a Leadership Award for Societal Engagement.
- Computer Weekly named her the 44th "Most Influential Woman in UK Tech" in 2019.
- Also in 2019, Casio released a scientific calculator in Spain that featured Jess Wade's picture as part of a series honoring famous female scientists.
- In 2023, she was one of six women chosen by Nature to comment on their plans for International Women's Day. She also received the President’s Medal for Outreach from Imperial College London.
- In 2024, Jess received a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and the Rosalind Franklin Award from the Royal Society. These awards recognized her achievements in materials science and her project to support early career women scientists.
- In 2025, she was elected as a Fellow of SPIE, a professional society for optics and photonics.
See also
In Spanish: Jess Wade para niños
