Schmidt Science Polymaths
The Schmidt Science Polymath Program seeks to empower intensely creative, early-to-mid-career researchers to take adventurous leaps into new research domains, experiment with new methodologies and ideas, and inspire impactful scientific breakthroughs.
The Program
The Schmidt Science Polymath Program supports extraordinary researchers with remarkable track records, promising futures, and a desire to expand their research portfolios by exploring a substantive disciplinary or methodological shift soon after achieving tenure. Each professor will be awarded $500,000 per year, paid through their institution, for up to five years to help support a research group through talent, such as three to four students or postdocs, and resources. These grants are intended to make possible the exploration of new ideas across disciplines, using emerging technologies to test risky theories that may not otherwise receive funding or support. They are not intended to relieve the researcher of pursuing other grants to continue their mainstream work, nor to be large enough to fully support a modern lab.
Selection
Schmidt Futures is seeking exceptional academic researchers from a specific and pivotal period in their career. In order to be eligible for nomination to the Schmidt Science Polymaths application process, candidates must meet the following qualifications:
- Have achieved tenure or equivalent status within the past three calendar years,
- Have a remarkable record of accomplishment in mathematics, computer science, natural sciences, and/or engineering,
- Have a demonstrated history of pursuing and publishing results in more than one field,
- Demonstrate a need for additional funding to enable new experiments, explorations, or shifts in research directions.
Applications to Schmidt Science Polymaths are by invitation only. We seek nominations from a select group of leading science, technology, and engineering institutions to identify the highest quality candidates, as well as a broader call for nominations from targeted leaders within the Schmidt Sciences and broader scientific communities. Eligible nominees will be invited to submit an application, which will include a CV, information about past accomplishments, a description of potential problems or projects they might pursue if they received the award, and a list of references who will be able to speak to their creativity, adventurousness, and likelihood of pursuing exciting and excellent new research directions. Applications are reviewed by a team of experts. The review is highly selective; fewer than 10% of applicants are selected to receive the award each year.
Nominations are typically collected from June to mid-August, applications are due in October, and decisions are shared in April.
If you would like for your institution to be considered as a nominating partner or are interested in learning more about the selection process, please reach out to polymaths@schmidtsciences.org.
2023 Grant Recipients
2022 Grant Recipients
2021 Grant Recipients
Jeff Gore
Dr. Jeff Gore is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he uses his background in physics to gain critical insights into important biological questions. Dr. Gore uses quantitative thinking and a variety of tools from areas such as game theory, statistical physics, and behavioral ecology to solve problems in different fields. His research has moved from physics-based analysis of behavior of single biological molecules to research that elucidates behaviors in biological populations using a physicist’s taste for precise experiments and a biologist’s interest in real-world complexity. Dr. Gore’s lab is composed of an interdisciplinary group of scientists interested in collaboration that effectively combines experiments, theory, and modeling. Visit the Gore Lab website for more information on their work.
Oded Rechavi
Dr. Oded Rechavi is a Professor of Neurobiology in the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University where he seeks to challenge fundamental long-held scientific dogmas. Prof. Rechavi’s primary research has focused on transgenerational inheritance and evolution where he introduced a paradigm shift in the field of inheritance not by identifying small RNAs that are generated in response to stress and are transmitted to subsequent generations. Outside of transgenerational biology, Dr. Rechavi has pioneered several new areas of interdisciplinary research. His work on the Dead Sea Scrolls used genome sequencing to help identify sources and to piece together tiny fragments of the scrolls by analyzing ancient DNA obtained from the animal skin parchment they were written on. His work on neuroeconomics uncovered neuronal mechanisms that underlie irrational decision making. Visit the Rechavi Lab website for more information on their work.
Work we’re doing for science
We build networks of brilliant researchers at different career stages. We lead Virtual Institutes of Science to solve hard problems across locations and fields using modern tools.
