This week for the Sixth Form Speaker Programme we were lucky enough to listen to Dr Jessica Wade. Dr Wade is a physicist and lecturer at Imperial College, where she also carries out her research, and an overall advocate for diversity on STEM.

Dr Wade started off her talk by explaining the scope of her research: she specialises in investigating spin selective charge transport through chiral systems. One of Dr Wade’s main goals is to create new materials for technology screens.

A main part of Dr Wade’s talk which was truly inspiring to hear was her passion towards diversity in STEM. Dr Wade explained that there have always been women in STEM and, in fact, at some girls schools in the 1900s, science experiments were not uncommon. However somewhere along the line STEM became unacceptable as a women’s subject, so Dr Wade highlighted many important women in STEM such as Mildred Dresselhaus, the ‘Carbon Queen’.

One of Dr Wade’s interests outside of her work is creating Wikipedia pages on overlooked or forgotten women in STEM. She has been doing this everyday since 2017/18 and has made over 1,700 new Wikipedia pages. One woman she wrote a Wikipedia page on, Gladys West, helped invent GPS, and after Dr Wade’s Wikipedia page West became more well-known and was featured in many articles about the important and influential woman in STEM, eventually becoming the first woman to be awarded the Prince Philip Medal for Engineering at age 90.

Dr Wade was not only an inspiration for the girls in the Sixth Form looking to pursue careers in STEM; she was an inspiration to everyone.

Mary M, Lower Sixth