By EDI Committee member Jessica Piasecki
Dr Jessica Piasecki is an Associate Professor of Female Physiology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), working in the Sport Science department. Jess completed her PhD in 2018, investigating the influence of exercise and circulatory factors on the musculoskeletal system. From here, she started her journey as a lecturer at NTU and began researching female physiology across the entire lifespan, from investigating the impacts of the menstrual cycle on neuromuscular function to the influence of menopause on the healthspan of older females.
Dr Piasecki has previously competed as an elite marathon runner, and her experiences as a female athlete have underpinned her research interests. In 2021, she competed for Team GB at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and in 2022 finished 12th in the World Championship marathon. Her time of 2:22:25 is the fourth fastest of all time in British history.
As part of our Faces of Physiology Series, we spoke to Dr Jessica Piascki to learn more about her career and what motivated her to join our EDI committee.
What are you most proud of in your career so far?
An aspect within my physiology career I am most proud of is learning new techniques quite late into my career, and helping PhD students and ECRs to develop their own projects using these new methodologies – establishing a community within the lab. I am quite passionate about supporting others in the early stages of their career in a way that allows them to develop their own skill set and bring their own ideas to fruition, which is something that we have been able to implement through our neuromuscular research group.
What challenges have you overcome to get to where you are?
One of the challenges I have faced in my physiology career is trying to balance it with being a professional athlete. Given my passion for both, it was quite hard to prioritise one or the other at any given point, which can become detrimental. I was able to juggle my physiology career by working part-time from 2020 to 2024, but through this, there were a lot of occasions where I worked more than my hours equated to. So it was certainly challenging trying to prioritise different aspects whilst still wanting to progress in my career. Another reason why I became interested in EDI-related activities is to support others in part-time academic roles.
Why is EDI important to you, and what motivated you to get involved?
I see EDI being important through research activities, particularly when studying humans. It is important to be inclusive for everyone, and this stems from the environment in the lab, to participants being able to partake in the activity or perhaps an intervention. We are trying to understand fundamental aspects of physiology, and humans are diverse, therefore, it is important that we, as researchers, expand our research to be as accessible as possible and strive to access diverse population samples.
Furthermore, I think it is important for everyone within academia to feel included and have similar opportunities and access to leadership roles. This is something I have worked to build within our research centre through the development of bespoke maternity policies that support mothers through the transition and allow them to return to work with minimal impact on their career trajectories.
These are the faces of physiology. Help us see the full picture — complete our EDI survey this autumn to help shape the future of an inclusive community.
We’re always looking to celebrate our members and their stories. If you would like to share your story with us, please contact membership@physoc.org.