Who Is Jessica Wade? Physicist On A Mission To Diversify Wikipedia Science Profiles

When Jessica Wade isn’t working in the physics laboratories of Imperial College London, she is fighting to make science inclusive and accessible. Her flagship project is to create and edit articles on Wikipedia to ensure that the scientific contributions made by women and other under-represented communities aren’t lost to posterity.

The London-based 33-year-old physicist has written more than 1,600 Wikipedia profiles for overlooked women scientists so far. Jessica Wade’s efforts are part of a personal campaign to not only give women scientists the recognition they deserve but also to encourage young women to pursue careers in science, engineering, technology and mathematics.

Who is Jessica Wade?

The daughter of two physicians, Wade initially 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 (MSci) degree in physics at Imperial College London. She subsequently completed her PhD in physics in 2016 from Imperial, where her work in nanometrology in organic semiconductors was supervised by Ji-Seon Kim.

Wade gained notice when, still in her 20s, she began writing Wikipedia biographies about women and minority scientists who never got their due — from employers, from other scientists and from the public.

As her Wikipedia entries climbed into the dozens, and then into the hundreds, she spoke and wrote more on gender equality in science. She won awards and medals and was cited by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

Wade once said that she feels that the science community needs to work harder to identify the needs of undergraduate women so that they feel confident enough to apply for postgraduate positions.

“We need to look after the women who are already on their way so that when the going gets tough, they know where to turn to for advice and feel comfortable in whatever environment they work in. If we can recruit more PhD graduates to post doc positions and encourage them to apply for fellowships, lecturer and reader jobs, we’ll make significant headway. Recruitment and promotion panels need to overcome their own unconscious biases before interviewing for senior positions," she said.

She also implores schools to implement better policies to target bullying and sexual harassment that may discourage women from pursuing fields in which they are a minority.

Suggested Reading: Physicist Jessica Wade on Gender Imbalance in Sciences