Dr Jessie Mole

25 September 1915 – 24 March 2000 Dr Jessie Mole was awarded a scholarship to the City Freemans School and went on to achieve a PhD in Chemistry on 10 May 1939 at Bedford College, London.

During World War II, Jessie began her career as one of the first research chemists for ICI in Liverpool.  She then went on to work at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell.

In April 1975, Jessie wrote the Deed of Trust for the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society (BRPS), the charity founded to find a treatment for the condition with which her niece, Lynda, had been diagnosed.

Jessie worked tirelessly for the charity, serving as Treasurer, Chairman of the Management Committee and then Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Jessie died on 24 March 2000 and The Dr Jessie Mole lecture was inaugurated on 10 December 2001, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to BRPS, then RP Fighting Blindness and now Retina UK.

The annual lecture is given at the Oxford Retinal Symposium and a commemorative silver medal is struck for the lecturer, stamped on one side is the following:

Retina UK
Dr Jessie Mole Memorial Medal
1915 – 2000

The other side is engraved with the name of the person giving the lecture and the year.

Jessie Mole lecturers

10 December 2001 – Professor Alan Bird

16 December 2002 – Professor Neville N Osborne

4 April 2004 – Professor Peter Humphries

12 December 2005 – Professor Robin Ali

4 December 2006 – Professor Russell Foster

17 December 2007 – Professor Mark Hankins

8 December 2008 – Professor Graeme Black

7 December 2009 – Dr Elizabeth Graham

6 December 2010 – Professor Miguel Seabra

5 December 2011 – Professor Alan Wright

9 December 2012 – Professor Martin Snead

30 July 2013 – Professor Andrew Webster

6 July 2014 – Professor Robert MacLaren

5 July 2015 – Professor Susan Downes

2016 – Professor Alison Hardcastle

2019 – Professor Andrew Lotery

20 April 2020 – Professor Jane Farrar – CANCELLED BECAUSE OF COVID-19

2021 – 2023 – No medal awarded

6 March 2024 – Professor Mariya Moosajee

19 March 2025 – Professor Peter Charbel Issa