Jessica Lee Ware

Jessica Lee Ware is a Canadian-American evolutionary biologist and entomologist. She is curator and chair of the Division of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. In addition, she is a principal investigator at the Institute for Comparative Genomics and a professor for the Richard Gilder Graduate School. She studies the evolution of insect physiology and behavior, particularly dragonflies and Dictyoptera (cockroaches, termites and mantises), as well as their biogeography (geographic distribution). Ware was a contributor to a major study of the phylogenomics of insect evolution, and developed molecular phylogeny of Hexapoda (the group that contains insects and springtails, among others). Ware attended the University of Toronto Schools (UTS) for grades 7–13. which helped to support her during her studies.

After graduating, Ware traveled to Costa Rica to work with Diane Srivastava for a semester. She reports that her time in Costa Rica inspired her to pursue research as a career, and it was also her first experience of working with other scientists of color. an examination of the evolutionary history of the Libelluloidea superfamily of dragonflies.

Career In 2010, Ware became an assistant professor at Rutgers University, and was granted tenure in 2016. In 2020 she was hired as an assistant curator of Odonata & non-holometabolous insect orders at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in Manhattan, New York, She has undertaken fieldwork in several continents. and co-organized #BlackInEnto week in February 2021.

She is a contributor to Entomology Today, and serves on the board of several entomological journals. As of May 7, 2020, Ware was elected to become Vice President-Elect of the Entomological Society of America, starting her term as vice president in November 2020, and as president in November 2021.

From 2019 to 2021, she served as President of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association.

She has been on NOVA PBS shows about insect entomophagy, and butterflies. She has also been featured on Jonathan Van Ness's podcast Getting Curious. She was the narrator on the PBS Terra show Insectarium.

A resident of Cranbury, New Jersey, she has spoken to groups there to educate them about her field of expertise.

Honors 2022, Fellow, California Academy of Sciences 2019, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award, U.S. Government 2019, Leader in Faculty Diversity Award, Rutgers University, which "honors a select number of faculty who have been leaders in promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and access at Rutgers, either through their own academic research, teaching, community engagement research, and other forms of engagement". 2017, SysEB Snodgrass Memorial Research Award, Entomological Society of America which recognizes "outstanding research by a graduate student". 2015, NSF Early CAREER Award, National Science Foundation 2008, John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award, Entomological Society of America

Personal life Ware's maternal family is from England but they have lived in Canada since the early 20th century. Ware's paternal family are from the southern United States. Ware has dual citizenship.

Ware was married to another entomologist, however, they are now separated and she is a single parent to two children.