About the Panellists

Dr Rachael Ainsworth

Dr Rachael Ainsworth is a Senior Product Manager for the Data Services team at Kraken, part of the Octopus Energy Group. Kraken's mission is to accelerate the energy transition, transform customer service and drive down the cost of green energy - we do this by building technology that makes the industry smarter and more efficient. In 2017, Rachael founded the Manchester chapter of HER+Data - a meetup community working to connect, inspire, support and empower the NW UK’s women in data. Before making the jump to the tech industry in 2023, Rachael was based at the University of Manchester as a Project and Community Manager for the Software Sustainability Institute and a Co-I for the UK SKA Regional Centre Project. Through these projects she worked to promote openness, transparency, reproducibility, wellbeing and inclusion in research and STEM. Prior to that, she held Postdoctoral positions at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (UoM) and at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland. She received her BSc in Physics from the University of Tennessee and her PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Dublin, Trinity College. Her research involved observing jets from young stars with next-generation radio telescopes to investigate the physical processes that assemble stars like our Sun. She extends her heartfelt congratulations to all the finalists, and looks forward to hearing about their achievements and contributions to physics!

Dr Emma Alexander

Dr Emma Alexander has a background in astrophysics and radio astronomy, getting both her MPhys and PhD degrees from the University of Manchester. Her research has previously focused on observing radio emission from galaxies and using polarimetry to determine their magnetic fields. Recently, she has been applying her skills from research in the public sector, working as a statistician for the Civil Service.

Dr Jessica Boland

Dr Jessica Boland is a UKRI Future Leader Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Functional Materials and Devices based at the University of Manchester. She studied for her Masters in Physics with Professional Experience at the University of Exeter, before moving to University of Oxford to conduct a DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics on terahertz spectroscopy of semiconductor nanowires for device applications. Her current research interests are focused on using terahertz spectroscopy and microscopy for non-destructive optoelectronic characterisation of advanced functional materials, including topological insulators, and development of terahertz devices, such as emitters and photodetectors, for imaging and wireless communication. Back in 2018, she was fortunate to receive the IOP Jocelyn Bell Burnell award for her work and promotion of others in the field. She is absolutely delighted to be speaking to current finalists this year and can't wait to hear about their research and career goals!

Dr Alison Wright

Dr Alison Wright is a Senior Editor for the Nature portfolio, within the publisher Springer Nature. Alison graduated from the University of Manchester in 1991 with a BSc in physics, and then also completed a PhD with the university. Her PhD research was in the field of particle physics, and was mostly conducted at the DESY Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany. She did post-doctoral research at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford and at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, working on the Large Electron–Positron Collider and the Large Hadron Collider. During a CERN Fellowship, she became very active in the communication of science and then moved into science publishing, joining the journal Nature in 2001. She was the launch Chief Editor of Nature Physics and later became Editorial Director for Nature journals in the physical, Earth, environmental and social sciences. In 2023, she chose to move to a part-time editing role with the Nature portfolio, handling content across a wide range of sciences. And she now spends the other ‘part’ of her time creating theatre.