Jessica Polka, a biochemist who holds a Doctor of Philosophy from UCSF, is an influential executive director in the world of science and research. She is widely respected for her contributions to the scientific community and her work to promote transparency in scientific publishing. A former steering committee member at Rescuing Biomedical Research, Polka is passionate about the future of research and its impact on society.

Polka served as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School, after which, she worked as a junior specialist at UCSF. She has also held committee service roles at the American Society for Cell Biology and served as the Director, Meeting co-organizer, and now Executive Director at ASAPBIO. Additionally, she served as the President of the Board of Directors at Future of Research and as a Visiting Scholar at the Whitehead Institute.

Through her contributions to ASAPbio, Polka has helped to foster a culture of transparency and open communication in scientific publishing, a cause that she is very passionate about. She has written extensively on this topic and has been a strong advocate for the use of preprints.