Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic vehicle created by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, has announced the 2020 class of Schmidt Science Fellows, a program established in partnership with the Rhodes Trust at the University of Oxford.

Through the program, part of a ten-year, $100 million effort by Schmidt Futures to support the next generation of science leaders, twenty-two early-career scientists working to harness interdisciplinary approaches to long-term societal challenges, including infectious disease, climate change, and biodiversity loss, will receive a $100,000 stipend and be paired with an internationally accomplished senior scientist as a mentor. With this third annual cohort, the Schmidt Science Fellows community now numbers more than fifty.

The 2020 class of Schmidt Science Fellows includes Mar Cabeza-Cabrerizo (Francis Crick Institute), who is studying the role of dendritic cells in the human immune system and their role in colonizing tissue infected by influenza or cancer; James Chen (Rockefeller University), who plans to combine structural biology with genetics and cell-imaging to investigate some of the fundamental biological processes involved in latent malaria, where dormant parasites take hold in the liver; Kirsten Hall (Johns Hopkins University), an astrophysicist who plans to use her expertise with large datasets to convert raw climate data from atmospheric monitoring satellites and ground-based data into actionable information; and Fernando Soto (University of California, San Diego), a nanoengineer who is pivoting his research to the development of programmable materials that can be used to create autonomous biorobots.

"As the need for rapid and innovative scientific discovery and response grows more urgent during this global pandemic, we are convinced now, more than ever, there is tremendous value in recruiting the most promising scientific minds to apply their intellectual rigor and investigation to additional disciplines," said Wendy Schmidt, "These exceptional early-career scientists join a growing community of Schmidt Science Fellows working to make transformative contributions, including new ways to fight against pandemic pathogens. Eric and I are excited to see what they can accomplish together."

For a complete list of this year's Schmidt Science Fellows, see the Schmidt Futures website.