Schmidt Science Fellows

We want to close out an incredible 2024 by sharing this from our Times Higher Education / Schmidt Science Fellows Interdisciplinary Science Forum. Words from our Executive Director Dr. Megan Kenna that capture why we all do it … and why it matters. We are looking forward to working with the research community to achieve even more interdisciplinary success in 2025.

A hugely impactful 2024 for us culminated one month ago with the launch of the Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings, in association with Schmidt Science Fellows. The Rankings, the largest Rankings debut in Times Higher’s history, will accelerate global progress in interdisciplinary research by championing best practice wherever it is found and by highlighting the approaches that are driving success. This unique data and analysis is the latest initiative in pursuit of our mission: To change how science is done. Aligned with the launch, the Interdisciplinary Science Forum in Washington DC. brought together an influential international audience to discuss the “how” of interdisciplinary science. Expert panels explored key issues, including interdisciplinary leadership, measurement and metrics, career paths, and institutional models. As our Executive Director Dr. Megan Kenna told Forum delegates: “True change will be driven by leaders, visionaries, and institutions willing to invest in bold ideas. By funders who prioritize impact over convention. By educators training the next generation to think across disciplines and act with urgency.” Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the first Interdisciplinary Science Ranking and to all those who brought ideas, challenge, and perspectives to the Interdisciplinary Science Forum. We are committed to strengthening this growing community of interdisciplinary support across the globe and throughout 2025 Find out more: https://lnkd.in/dBiVuqtj

We love sharing the stories of our fantastic Fellows, so launching our new website in September was a huge 2024 highlight for us. Check out our latest news and features: https://lnkd.in/ecdSU6Y The dynamic site puts storytelling and our Fellows’ journeys and achievements center stage, and a redesigned Fellows Directory allows you to search for fellows by discipline and location. Subscribe to our Newsletter to join our community and stay connected to our progress: https://lnkd.in/eAtT2SgH We are looking forward to sharing more stories of interdisciplinary impact throughout 2025!

On one exciting Toronto evening, five inspiring and hopeful talks brought our Program and the transformative power of interdisciplinary science to life. Watch these fantastic talks now via our Impact Stories: https://lnkd.in/eTHaR4sQ Our Interdisciplinary Science Summit was a standout moment in what has been a remarkable 2024 for Schmidt Science Fellows. Sharing their passion, personal motivation, and aspirations, five feature presentations from our founding Executive Director, Dr. Megan Kenna, and four Senior Fellows, Jyotirmoy Mandal (জ্যোতির্ময় মন্ডল), Berit H. Goodge, Paul Chen, and Kirsten Hall were the centerpiece of the event. Our first-ever Interdisciplinary Science Summit, in association with the University of Toronto,  was part of our commitment to grow and galvanize a visible interdisciplinary science community, providing opportunities to connect, share ideas, and build stronger collaborations.  We look forward to continuing to grow that community together in 2025.

Congratulations to our 2022 Fellow Anthony Waddle on his nomination for this Future For Nature Foundation Award. Anthony's work, which featured on the front cover of Nature, is making a significant contribution to conservation and we are proud of what he is achieving. And congratulations to all those on this shortlist for their incredible work.

Our amazing 2023 Fellow Coco Newton is the Postdoctoral Winner of the Women in Neuroscience UK Rising Star Award. A hugely talented researcher and tireless advocate and role model in the fight to address neurodegenerative disease. We are incredibly proud!

Our ambition for the Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings, in association with Schmidt Science Fellows, is to support institutions in fostering environments where interdisciplinary science can thrive. Congratulations to every university recognized as an exemplar in the 2025 Rankings. https://lnkd.in/dBiVuqtj

Meet a few of our Schmidt Science Fellows, whose portraits hung for one night last week at The National Portrait Gallery, in honor of the power of interdisciplinary science and coinciding with the release of a new ranking of global universities that are creating the conditions for boundary-breaking discoveries. The knowledge of how to fight disease and pandemics in new ways, how to build a healthier, more resilient, and more secure world for more people is ready for us to uncover when we bring the lenses of different disciplines to investigate problems. At the Schmidt Science Fellows program, we experience this revelation over and over again in the projects of the scientists we support. The more we look, the more we see interconnections in our physical universe, from the smallest subatomic particle to the luminescent creatures in the deepest Ocean to the farthest galaxy in Space. It’s a fabric, we’re in it, and the more our practice of science helps us understand this, using all the tools we are fortunate to have developed, the more humans can thrive. We’re the reason we do science at all. If you were to study the universe with only a microscope, you would miss the stars. Portraits by @weareoutright

The launch of the inaugural Interdisciplinary Science Rankings has demonstrated an inspiring global ambition to do science differently. https://lnkd.in/dBiVuqtj By bringing together perspectives, ideas, and skills, interdisciplinary science broadens our view and enhances our ability to innovate and solve the complex problems facing science and society.   But it is challenging to do science differently, to cross the lines, to break down the barriers. Our aspiration in supporting the Times Higher Education Rankings was to fuel a global conversation: How can we best support the most creative and courageous interdisciplinary science at the individual, institutional, national, and international level? What can we do differently? With 749 institutions from 92 countries participating (the largest Rankings debut in Times Higher Education’s history) and more than 250 academic leaders, business leaders, researchers, funders, and policymakers joining a dedicated Forum to explore how we drive positive culture change, that conversation is now live. Massachusetts Institute of Technology was ranked number one and its Vice-President for Research Ian Waitz described the inaugural Rankings as an “impressive and audacious” project that would drive progress at scale across the research sector. And whilst established research regions performed strongly, the Rankings are also remarkable for the diversity of engaged institutions. Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s Chief Global Engagement Officer, said the Rankings demonstrated a “real hunger across the world’s higher education sector to show their commitment to interdisciplinarity science and a desire to better understand, benchmark, and recognize their interdisciplinary work." And our Founding Executive Director Dr. Megan Kenna underlined the vital need to develop and adopt new approaches to science.  “The solutions we need for the 21st century will not come from a single discipline. “They will come from the fertile intersection of fields like biology and data science or engineering and economics. “They will come from bringing together people who don’t think alike but who think differently, creatively, and courageously.” She added: “These rankings are more than a list — they are a statement of values, declaring that the future of science is collaborative, inclusive, and unafraid of complexity.”

Over 400 years ago, the scientific revolution gave birth to the modern world - but today, the challenges the world faces call not for a scientific revolution, but for a revolution in science. So said Dr. Megan Kenna, at an inspirational evening dinner hosted by Megan, Schmidt Science Fellows and Schmidt Sciences to mark the launch of the inaugural Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings. She said: The scientific revolution "was an era of extraordinary courage and creativity, led by figures like Galileo and Newton, who dared to challenge conventions and redefine what was possible. "That revolution brought us the scientific method, disciplines like physics and chemistry, and the foundation for engineering and modern medicine. "But today, the challenges the world faces call not for a scientific revolution, but for a revolution in science.  "For a change in how science is done. "Because in recent decades, the structures of academia, research funding, and publication have rewarded an ever-increasing and narrow specialization. "While depth of expertise is essential, so too is breadth of knowledge and the ability to connect ideas across disciplines. And yet the culture that has grown up around science too often encourages researchers to stay in their lanes and to take incremental steps rather than bold leaps. "But let me remind you: that the most profound breakthroughs of the past century—the double-helix structure of DNA, the COVID-19 vaccine, and artificial intelligence—they did not emerge from scientists staying in their own lanes. They came from the scientists that were willing to cross them. "Likewise, the solutions we need for the 21st century will not come from a single discipline. They will come from the fertile intersection of fields like biology and data science or engineering and economics. "They will come from bringing together people who don’t think alike -- but who think differently, creatively, and courageously. "This is why the inaugural Interdisciplinary Science Ranking we celebrate tonight is so vital. For the first time, we are recognizing and championing the universities breaking barriers and harnessing the power of interdisciplinarity." View the rankings here: https://lnkd.in/dQTmDyet With huge thanks to Duncan Ross, Billy Wong, Sol Ramos and Jhesselle Leonor for their work to deliver this project, to Keith Burnett and Ruth Arnold for advocating for THE, to Megan, Matt Goode and all at Schmidt Science Fellows for their vision and drive, and to Wendy Schmidt and Stu Feldman and everyone at Schmidt Sciences for their world-changing philanthropy. #THEUnirankings #THEISR #THEISF