Eric and Wendy Schmidt announce the 2023 Schmidt Science Fellows

(Press-News.org) New York, NY, 3 May 2023 - Today, Eric and Wendy Schmidt announced the members of the 2023 cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows. The 32 exceptional early career scientists will receive support to develop research projects and the leadership skills necessary to harness interdisciplinary science to tackle some of the world’s most intractable problems.

Schmidt Science Fellows is the inaugural program of Schmidt Futures, the philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt with a mission to find and connect talented people to solve our world’s hardest problems. The Program is delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. 

The sixth cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows will join the lifelong community of Fellows, now totaling 145 members from 34 nationalities. The latest Fellows include the Program’s first nationals from Brazil, Ecuador, Nigeria, and Macedonia and the first Fellows to be nominated from Brazilian and Indian universities. The new cohort was selected based on their scientific achievements, talent, leadership characteristics, and commitment to harnessing interdisciplinary science, as well as their potential to address global challenges, including climate destruction, neurodegenerative disease, and food insecurity and to improve mental health, drug discovery, energy security, and more.

Commenting on the new Fellows, Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Futures and president of The Schmidt Family Foundation, said: “History provides powerful examples of what happens when scientists are given the freedom to ask big questions which can achieve real breakthroughs across disciplines. Schmidt Science Fellows are tackling climate destruction, discovering new drugs against disease, developing novel materials, using machine learning to understand the drivers of human health, and much more.  This new cohort will add to this legacy in applying scientific discovery to improve human health and opportunity, and preserve and restore essential planetary systems.”

“I am proud to welcome the 2023 cohort to our global community of Schmidt Science Fellows. We know that ambitious interdisciplinary science is essential if we are going to tackle the critical challenges we face as human society.” said Dr. Megan Kenna, Executive Director of Schmidt Science Fellows. “Interdisciplinary approaches bring together different perspectives, people, techniques, and insights, meaning we solve bigger problems, faster. I am delighted that this diversity of perspectives is reflected in our community, with 11 new nominating universities seeing Fellows selected, including our first from institutions in Brazil and India, and 14 nationalities represented in this year’s group.”

The 2023 Schmidt Science Fellows and their nominating institutions are:

Raymond Adkins - University of California, Santa Barbara T. Bertie Ansell - University of Oxford Vesna Bacheva - Technion Israel Institute of Technology Yinon Bar-On - Weizmann Institute of Science Daril Brown - University of California, San Diego Joshua Chen - Rice University Lillian Chin - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Shizhong Dai - University of California, San Francisco Neil Dalvie - Massachusetts Institute of Technology Yotam Feldman - Tel Aviv University Asim Gazi - Georgia Institute of Technology Andrew Hunt - Northwestern University Ahyoung Kim - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Sahil Loomba - Imperial College London Cecília Magalhães - Universidade de São Paulo (USP) Juan Martinez Mori - Cornell University Ariane Mora - University of Queensland Charlotte Newton - University of Cambridge Suong Nguyen - Princeton University Solomon Oyakhire - Stanford University Kira Podolsky - University of California, San Diego Shilpa Pothapragada - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Krishnakant Saboo - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Susmita Sarkar - Purdue University Michael Schoof - University of California, San Francisco Amy Strilchuk - University of British Columbia Sridevi Venkatesan - University of Toronto Julian Vigil - Stanford University Yanbo Wang - Johns Hopkins University Yuanqing Wang - Cornell University Matthias Wurdack - Australian National University Yirui Zhang - Massachusetts Institute of Technology More details on each 2023 Fellow, including their research interests and their interdisciplinary science ambitions, can be found here. 

Schmidt Science Fellows receive a stipend of $100,000 a year for up to two years of postdoctoral research in a discipline different from their Ph.D at a world-leading lab anywhere around the globe. They will attend a Global Meeting Series and training program that introduces them to new research ideas, techniques, and questions; exposes them to a wide range of cutting-edge science, leading thinkers, and institutions; and delivers tailored training in science communication, leadership, and the facilitation of interdisciplinary research and will also receive bespoke mentoring from renowned and accomplished senior scientists. 

About Schmidt Science Fellows

Schmidt Science Fellows is an initiative of Schmidt Futures, delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. The Schmidt Science Fellows Program helps scientists solve bigger problems faster by identifying, developing, and amplifying the next generation of science leaders, building a community of scientists and supporters of interdisciplinary science, and leveraging this network to drive sector-wide change.

Each year, the Schmidt Science Fellows work in partnership with around 100 of the world’s leading science and engineering institutions to identify the best, brightest, and highest potential candidates to join the Fellowship. Nominated candidates then apply to the Program before a rigorous selection process that includes a paper-based academic review with panels of experts in their home disciplines and final interviews with panels, including senior representatives from across many scientific disciplines and different business sectors.

About Schmidt Futures

Founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative that brings talented people together in networks to prove out their ideas and solve hard problems in science and society. To learn more about our method and the diverse types of capital and tools that we deploy, visit https://www.schmidtfutures.com.

Media Contact
Melissa Stavenhagen, mstavenhagen@hstrategies.com

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