Abby Connolly
Women who work in science get less recognition than they deserve. Thankfully, one physicist has spent hours researching and ensuring that women who have made significant discoveries in the science field can be learned about all over the world.
Born in London, England, Dr. Jess Wade is a physicist and research fellow at Imperial College. Aside from the fascinating work she has launched at Imperial, conducting research around optoelectronic devices, Jess has also been working on another very important project– creating Wikipedia biographies for female scientists.
Jess grew up with her parents, who both worked as doctors, and attended an all-girls school as a child.
When she went to Imperial College as an undergraduate student, she worked diligently while studying physics.
However, as she moved on to become a Ph.D. student, she noticed a lack of women in her program. So as a female student, it was easy to feel isolated.
That’s when she decided to dedicate some of her time to outreach, encouraging young girls to start studying science.
She even gave a few talks at various schools and expressed frustration at how some campaigns have been run.
“There’s so much energy, enthusiasm, and money going into all these initiatives to get girls into science,” Jess told The Guardian, “Absolutely none of them is evidence-based, and none of them work. It’s so unscientific; that’s what really surprises me.”
After continuing her outreach work, Jess realized that one of the best ways to get people to learn about scientists was by uploading information to Wikipedia.
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