Lisa Jayne Jardine-Wright OBE (born 1976) is a physicist and educator at the University of Cambridge. She is Director of Isaac Physics, a Department for Education and The Ogden Trust supported Open Platform for Active Learning that supports school students learning physics.

Lisa Jardine-Wright
Jardine-Wright at the Institute of Physics Awards, 2019
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
AwardsIOP Phillips Award (2012), Lawrence Bragg Medal (2019)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
WebsiteLisa Jardine-Wright at Issac Physics

Education and early career

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Jardine-Wright attended a state-funded school in the North West of England.[1] She studied physics at the University of Cambridge. She earned her master's degree at Trinity College, Cambridge, before studying towards a doctorate with George Efstathiou. Jardine-Wright worked on simulating the cosmological formation of spiral galaxies at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. During her PhD she became interested in outreach and public engagement, and organised a series of open days and public lectures.[1] She worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the formation of galaxies.[1] During her postdoc, Jardine-Wright partnered with the Cambridge Astronomy Association to lead a series of stargazing evenings.[2]

Career

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Jardine-Wright has worked in science communication and outreach. She was a British Science Association media fellow at the Financial Times, and started to write for the Times Higher Education as well as for the journal Science. She has also acted as a consultant for BBC News Magazine.[3] During her post-doctoral research she also worked as the astronomy consultant for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich for the redesign of their astronomy galleries and planetarium (opened in 2007). Jardine-Wright is the educational outreach officer at the University of Cambridge, where she runs several programmes including Physics at Work and the Senior Physics Challenge.[4] She is a Director of Studies and Undergraduate Student Tutor at Churchill College, Cambridge and served as Acting Senior Tutor of the college during the spring and summer of the pandemic year 2020. She has investigated the performance of undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge, and the impact of gender and socioeconomic background.[5] Despite all students being at the same academic level on entry to Cambridge, Jardine-Wright showed that women perform better with scaffolded as opposed to open questions.[5]

Isaac Physics

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Since founding Isaac Physics[6] in 2014, Jardine-Wright has acted as Director and co-Director.[7][8] Isaac Physics is an online collection of physics questions from the archive of the Cambridge Assessment that looks to support school students studying physics.[9] It originally began under the name of the Rutherford Schools Physics Partnership. Isaac Physics helps physics students prepare for the transition from school to university.[10] Jardine-Wright is the author of an educational books for Isaac Physics.[11] From 2013, the project has been supported by the Department for Education with additional support from The Ogden Trust.[12][13] Isaac also supports students studying A-Level chemistry.[14]

Honours and awards

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Jardine-Wright was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to education.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Blue-sky thinking that led to an astronomical ambition". Times Higher Education (THE). 2 November 2007. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Starry starry nights | Cambridge Network". www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  3. ^ Holliday, Katie (13 September 2017). "What is so special about special relativity: Can we use it to stay younger for longer?". University of Suffolk. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  4. ^ "Making outreach work". www.iop.org. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  5. ^ a b Gibson, Valerie; Jardine-Wright, Lisa; Bateman, Elizabeth (1 July 2015). "An investigation into the impact of question structure on the performance of first year physics undergraduate students at the University of Cambridge". European Journal of Physics. 36 (4): 045014. Bibcode:2015EJPh...36d5014G. doi:10.1088/0143-0807/36/4/045014. S2CID 53466707.
  6. ^ "Isaac Physics". Isaac Physics.
  7. ^ Anonymous (3 December 2015). "Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright". www.ice.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Physics website throws down A level gauntlet". www.sec-ed.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  9. ^ "How questions from the past are creating the physicists of tomorrow". www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  10. ^ "Librarian in Training". Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  11. ^ "Isaac Physics Books". isaacbooks.org. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  12. ^ Trust, The Ogden (23 February 2021). "Promoting the teaching and learning of physics". The Ogden Trust.
  13. ^ "Curriculum fund programme pilots: list of lead schools and related information". GOV.UK. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  14. ^ "Isaac Physics". Isaac Physics. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  15. ^ "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 2022. p. B16.
  16. ^ "Phillips Award recipients". www.iop.org. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  17. ^ Davison, Tim (18 September 2015). "Isaac Physics project makes awards shortlist". For staff. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  18. ^ Cambridge University (30 June 2017), Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright - Department of Physics, retrieved 3 July 2019
  19. ^ "Churchill Fellow, Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright wins University Pilkington Prize for excellence in teaching – Churchill College". www.chu.cam.ac.uk. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  20. ^ "2019 Lawrence Bragg Medal and Prize". 2019 Lawrence Bragg Medal and Prize | Institute of Physics. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
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  • Isaac Physics - supporting physics students
  • Ogden Trust - charitable trust that exists to promote the teaching and learning of physics