Schmidt Science Fellows

We are excited to announce our 2025 Schmidt Science Fellows! https://lnkd.in/e6YY-u5t Thirty-two early career researchers, nominated by the world’s leading research universities, will take an interdisciplinary approach to tackling the most pressing challenges of the 21st Century. “By providing Schmidt Science Fellows with support, community, and freedom to work across disciplines and gain new insights, we hope they'll tackle some of the world's most vexing challenges, achieve breakthroughs, and help create a healthier, more resilient world for all,” said Wendy Schmidt, who co-founded Schmidt Science Fellows with her husband, Eric. Each year, our new cohort marks an important milestone as we welcome accomplished researchers, each individual enriching our community. “Our Fellows represent the next generation of visionary research leaders,” said Dr. Megan Kenna, Executive Director of Schmidt Science Fellows. “Through their work, they will break down barriers, drive interdisciplinary breakthroughs, and push the frontiers of human knowledge." Schmidt Science Fellows is a program of Schmidt Sciences delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. Our 2025 Fellows represent 15 nationalities, including researchers from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates for the first time. The 2025 Fellows represent 27 nominating universities, including, for the first time, McGill University in Canada, RWTH Aachen University in Germany, Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, University of California, Los Angeles in the US, and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Our 2025 Schmidt Science Fellows have also expanded our global reach and impact.  They have: 📢 Grown our Fellowship community to 209 📢 Taken the number of nationalities represented to 39 📢 Increased the number of successful global Nominating Partners to 67,   representing institutions across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania. The funding and our bespoke Science Leadership Program equips scientists to be the next generation of research leaders and apply their knowledge to a new field of study with the goal of accelerating discoveries. Congratulations to our successful Nominating Partners: University of Oxford RWTH Aachen University UC San Diego Northwestern University Stanford University The Johns Hopkins University Imperial College London University of Wisconsin-Madison The Francis Crick Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology McGill University Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPI-MG) Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems UCL University of California, Berkeley Dartmouth College TECNOLÓGICO DE MONTERREY University of Groningen Wellcome Trust University of Cambridge University of Pennsylvania The Rockefeller University Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Princeton University Yale University Purdue University UCLA Cornell University

“Most people, when they think of how a philosopher is going to help scientists, it’s about how it's going to make the concept sharper. I think that's missing the full breadth of ways that philosophers can help scientists to do the work that they already want to do to an even deeper degree." https://lnkd.in/ep9F9SmJ 2022 Schmidt Science Fellow Ethan Perets, based at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is passionate about forging closer links between philosophy and science. And his vision is to see philosophers embedded in every lab. He's now written a new book chapter exploring how philosophy is an under-appreciated lens for tackling a whole range of scientific challenges.

Fate and our ability to seize the moment still play a hand in progress. https://lnkd.in/eyBi5meK Aleksandr Montelli (Sasha) is a 2019 Schmidt Science Fellows Fellow, and in February 2025, his research took him to the Bellingshausen Sea to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula as co-chief scientist onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute research vessel R/V Falkor (too). Just a few days into the cruise, the George VI ice shelf calved an enormous iceberg (A-84), exposing an area of seabed the size of Chicago to research for the very first time. The interdisciplinary team’s ability to research a newly exposed area so quickly was like lifting the ice shelf and looking underneath: “Everything is so fresh, biology has not had time to adapt yet," says Sasha. The work will advance research on past ice-sheet dynamics, improve our models and predictions of future ice shelf movement, and help us better understand its impact on the Earth’s climate and Antarctica’s biodiversity. Or as Sasha puts it: “Understanding our past to better understand, and be able to predict, the future of the climate.” “This fieldwork cannot happen every day or even every year,” he says.  “These are rare moments. “It is very surreal, but [there is] also a sense of gratefulness for being granted the opportunity to make these discoveries.” Sasha Montelli is a 2019 Schmidt Science Fellow and a lecturer at UCL

It’s more than 50 years since the first Landsat mission was launched, and in half a century a series of nine satellites have beamed back scientifically valuable and visually stunning images of our planet’s surface. However, when clouds obscure the Earth (as they frequently do), the images have been considered useless and left to gather dust in the archives. Now, an innovative new approach, led by 2020 Schmidt Science Fellow Dr Jacqueline Campbell, is utilizing AI to sift through abandoned data and garner fresh insights in our understanding of clouds and their contribution to climate change. Clouds Decoded is funded by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), the UK funding agency established to empower researchers to think differently. Together with Alistair Francis and Mikolaj Czerkawski, Jacqueline has founded the worker-owned research cooperative asterisk labs to support their innovative, interdisciplinary approach to breaking new ground. Discover the full story: https://lnkd.in/eXnigHFr

Our 2022 Fellow Anthony Waddle is a pioneering conservation biologist whose interdisciplinary approach is advancing innovative ways to protect our most threatened species. At Macquarie University, he led research to develop specially designed shelters to protect endangered frogs from the devastating impacts of a deadly disease by regulating their body temperature to fight off infections. Featured on the front cover of Nature Magazine last July, it is just one example of his work to create novel solutions to combat threats to biodiversity. We are so pleased that his continued, passionate, and ground-breaking research has been recognized by the 2025 Future For Nature Foundation Award. Richly deserved!

Huge congratulations to our 2024 Fellow Roman Barth on being awarded the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. https://lnkd.in/eZhrTiKj The accolade, created by the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, recognizes the exceptional achievements of graduate studies in the biological sciences. Roman is now pursuing his interdisciplinary research at the University of Washington in the lab of Prof. David Baker. Last year, our 2024 Fellow Erin Huiting was a recipient of this award - underlining the caliber and potential of our amazing Fellows.

We are incredibly proud of our 2024 Fellow Jeong Min Jane Park, who has been awarded the 2025 Lee Osheroff Richardson Science Prize. Dr. Park has been recognized for her pioneering work on emergent quantum phenomena, which she is exploring as part of her interdisciplinary Fellowship at Princeton University. The Oxford Instruments plc Lee Osheroff Richardson Science Prize promotes and recognizes the novel work of young scientists working in the fields of low temperatures and/or high magnetic fields or surface science in North and South America.

Our 2023 Fellow, Solomon Oyakhire, epitomizes the interdisciplinary approach. He has combined influences and inspiration from his PhD at Stanford University, his Fellowship Placement at University of California, Berkeley, and industry pioneers to forge a unique scientific pathway. Propelled by his experiences in California's Bay Area, where he pivoted from Chemical Engineering to Artificial Intelligence, Solomon is pioneering next-generation battery design to help us unlock a low-carbon future. He will be furthering his research as an Assistant Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology later this year. Learn more about Solomon's journey and his thoughts on interdisciplinary science in this latest article in Times Higher Education Campus+ https://lnkd.in/dytmB6e9 We were privileged to be in Northern California earlier this month for the latest convening of our Science Leadership Program. Hosted by Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley, our 2024 Fellows were able to draw inspiration from the same environment that has fuelled Solomon's approach. It was the fifth time our SLP has been staged in conjunction with Stanford and UC Berkeley, and we are grateful to all those who made it such a special and fulfilling week.

The inaugural Interdisciplinary Science Rankings were a huge success, and that was due in no small part to the commitment and expertise of individual researchers worldwide. As part of the data collection, independently developed by Times Higher Education, researchers were surveyed for their views on interdisciplinary research excellence. It is vital the expert perspective of the community informs the Rankings. It makes them more reflective of the work that is taking place within institutions and the data is used to create a holistic view of best practice within the output pillar along with institutional and bibliometric data. Now we are calling on that help again. The Interdisciplinary Science Research Survey is open for ISR2026 submissions. https://lnkd.in/etsT9UDe Times Higher Education is seeking experienced, published academics across the world to contribute their views on their own research and their institutions’ interdisciplinary research, in science, or science and social science, subjects. They can also name up to five institutions they believe are the best in supporting interdisciplinary research between science, or science and social science, subjects. Find out more and help make the Rankings a definitive benchmark for interdisciplinary excellence. https://lnkd.in/etsT9UDe The Data Portal is also open for Institutions to submit data for ISR2026. https://lnkd.in/g9FjMpVB The Rankings will be published in Autumn 2025.

UMN recently welcomed Schmidt Science Fellows for a day of collaboration and discovery, showcasing interdisciplinary research in AI, climate science, biotechnology, and sustainability. The visit highlighted UMN’s commitment to innovation and global scientific partnerships. Special thanks to David McAllister, Director of Selection and Outreach at Schmidt Science Fellows, for joining us.