Wade receives this year's annual Jocelyn Bell Burnell award

Dr Jessica Wade has been recognised for both her outstanding research in her field and also the work she does in encouraging others to study physics.

Dr Wade receives this year’s annual Jocelyn Bell Burnell award in recognition of her research and exceptional public engagement work

Dr Jessica Wade, 28, from Imperial College London, has been recognised for both her outstanding research in her field and also the work she does in encouraging others to study physics.

She was announced as this year’s winner of the Bell Burnell award on 9 November at an awards ceremony at the Institute of Physics (IOP) offices in London, where the four finalists were first invited to talk about their research and outreach work.

Dr Wade is currently a researcher in the Centre for Plastic Electronics at Imperial and senior outreach officer at King’s College London. She is also an educational consultant for the Institute of Research in Schools and sits on the WISE Young Women’s Board and the Institute of Physics South East Branch committee.

Wade said that winning the award had left her speechless, but wanted to offer her thanks to those who had shaped her career so far: “My physics life has been directed by some pretty awesome women scientists; my mother, my physics teacher at school, Dr Walgate, and my university supervisors and mentors, Professor Ji-Seon Kim and Professor Lesley Cohen.

“I have been incredibly lucky to be surrounded by some of the most exciting and brightest minds in the world. Physics has provided me with opportunities I could never have imagined. I have always felt it my duty to try and encourage others to study physics.

“I would also like to thank the IOP: since graduating, the Institute of Physics has become increasingly important — for inspiration, networking and professional development.”

The Bell Burnell award is awarded every year to one outstanding early career female physicist in recognition of their dedication not only to their research but to outreach, public engagement and encouraging others to study physics too.

Named after the eminent physicist Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell – the first physicist to discover pulsars and a previous president of the IOP – the award is presented by the IOP Women in Physics (WIP) group, with a judging panel choosing the overall winner from the four finalists.

Dr Wade was also a finalist in 2015 for the award, but narrowly missed out to now Dr Jena Meinecke from the University of Oxford. 

Dr Heather Williams, chair of the WIP group and senior medical physicist for nuclear medicine at Central Manchester University Hospitals offered her warmest congratulations to Dr Wade: “The judging panel and the Women in Physics group committee were very impressed by the incredible work done by Jessica.

“The amount of time and effort she has put into not only her own research is outstanding, and the outreach and engagement work she does is incredible too.

“Celebrating the success of women in physics is crucial in not only encouraging those like Jess’s who achieve so much to be proud of what they do, but to highlight the outstanding work women are doing in physics every day and encourage others to follow them.”

Adapated from a press released by the Institute of Physics.