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Schmidt Sciences

Supports under-supported AI, space, bioscience, climate

Research Assistant - Strategic Engagements

Full-Time
$22 - $26/hr
Entry
Arlington, VA, USA
In PersonIn-person requirement; full-time on-site January–June 2027.
Administrative & Executive AssistanceAdministrative Support

About the job

Requirements
  • All undergraduate or graduate majors and concentrations are encouraged to apply.
  • High proficiency in Google Suite, data organization, and project management software.
  • Proficiency in leveraging and prompting Large Language Models (LLMs).
  • Exceptional professional writing and communication skills for external partner engagement.
  • Must be able to work full-time in-person at our Arlington office January through June of 2027.
Responsibilities
  • Programming & Content Support: Assist in curating speaker lists, panel topics, and tech demonstrations that align with SCSP’s mission. Help draft compelling session descriptions and event agendas.
  • Speaker & VIP Coordination: Serve as a primary point of contact for speaker invitations, collecting bios and headshots, and ensuring a seamless experience for VIP guests.
  • Event Communications: Draft and edit external communications, including attendee invitations, event newsletters, promotional copy, social media content, and briefing materials for speakers and moderators.
  • Project Coordination: Use project management platforms (like Airtable and Google Suite) to track speaker logistics, programming details, and day-of show agendas.
  • On-Site Execution: Provide hands-on, on-site support during the Expo, assisting with stage management, speaker coordination, and attendee experience.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience working in a fast-paced office environment with strict deadlines.
  • Collaborative mindset and willingness to support the team in varied, fluctuating capacities.
  • Operate as a self-starter, bringing fresh ideas to current processes.
  • Interest in the intersection of American competitiveness and emerging technology.
  • This is a non-exempt position.

About the company

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Schmidt Sciences

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Schmidt Sciences is a philanthropy that funds and accelerates science and technology by identifying under-supported or unconventional areas of exploration and discovery. It seeks ideas, people, and techniques across AI and Advanced Computing, Astrophysics and Space, Biosciences, Climate, and Cross-Science programs to catalyze results for society. Its way of working is through funding, fellowships, and collaborative programs that support researchers and projects across disciplines, rather than selling a product. The organization differentiates itself by focusing on overlooked or risky areas and by fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration to deepen understanding of the natural world and develop solutions to global issues. The goal is to advance scientific knowledge and practical technologies that address global challenges and benefit society at large.

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • September 2026 AI agents research showed emergent languages, validating the program’s edge.
  • Schmidt Sciences plans up to four AI fellows in 2026, signaling team growth.
  • Active 2026 calls span AI safety, climate modeling, biomass, and labor economics.

What critics are saying

  • Multi-agent research can miss practical impact, leaving grants without visible adoption by 2027.
  • Funding and strategy depend heavily on Eric Schmidt's capital and priorities.
  • A grantee scandal or AI-policy failure could damage trust across academia and regulators.

What makes Schmidt Sciences unique

  • Eric Schmidt-backed philanthropy funds unconventional science, not product-driven venture.
  • Its AI Institute spans agents, trustworthy AI, and labor-market studies.
  • It funds infrastructure like arXiv modernization and open-source climate modeling.

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Benefits

  • Flexible Work Hours

Company News

ECO Magazine
Oct 16th, 2026
Ocean sulfur cycling symposium reunites global Researchers at Bigelow Laboratory.

Ocean sulfur cycling symposium reunites global Researchers at Bigelow Laboratory. * 16 October 2026 * Edited By: Haley McQueen Researchers from around the world convened at Bigelow Laboratory from October 12-15 for the seventh DMS(P) Symposium, the first time the meeting had been held since 2014. Researchers from around the world gather outside Bigelow Laboratory for the seventh DMS(P) Symposium. (Image credit: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) The symposium brought together nearly 50 experts studying dimethylsulfoniopropionate, or DMSP, a sulfur-containing compound produced by phytoplankton that plays important roles in ocean ecosystems and the global climate system. "We are delighted to have brought the DMS(P) community together again," said Steve Archer, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory and lead of the organizing committee. "It's a wonderful mix of expertise and personalities from across the globe, and is always scientifically productive." Phytoplankton and other marine organisms synthesize DMSP, which can help them cope with environmental stress. In the ocean, DMSP and the compounds produced as it breaks down also serve as nutrients and chemical signals that shape interactions among microorganisms. Notably, DMSP is also the primary source of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, a gas that can escape from the ocean into the atmosphere. Once there, DMS contributes to the formation of atmospheric particles that can form clouds and, ultimately, influence Earth's climate at large. "It is a fascinating and ever-evolving scientific story," Archer said. "But we know the production and transformation of this molecule plays a major role in shaping the environment we inhabit." The symposium examined these processes from the molecular scale to their global implications, including how phytoplankton and bacteria produce and transform DMSP, how these processes affect carbon and sulfur cycling, and how sulfur compounds move between the ocean and atmosphere. The meeting also provided an opportunity for scientists to connect observations of these processes with the models used to understand Earth's climate system. Archer co-chairs a Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) working group focused on compiling measurements of the rates at which sulfur compounds are transformed to help incorporate these processes into Earth system models. Bigelow Laboratory has a longstanding connection with DMS(P) research. Maureen Keller, a former research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory, conducted foundational research to determine which marine algae produce DMSP and related compounds. "Maureen Keller conducted the first, and most complete, survey of phytoplankton species for their production of DMSP and DMS using cultures from Bigelow Laboratory," said Paty Matrai, a senior research scientist emerita involved in the event. "Those discoveries are still the basis of regional and global models to estimate how much DMS(P) is produced by marine phytoplankton as a function of their growth rate and environmental conditions, such as light, temperature and nutrients." The event included multi-day workshops and working groups on topics ranging from the atmospheric impacts of DMSP and DMS to the role of DMSP in bacterial behavior and communication. Researchers also examined how environmental change may alter DMSP production and transformation in the ocean. "It is an incredibly important moment to be studying the ways in which processes like ocean mixing, air-sea spray, microalgal growth, and wind speed will change in our warming world," Matrai said. "We need to know how much cooling - if any - will result from ocean DMS(P) cycling to clouds." The event honored the legacy of Ronald P. "Ron" Kiene, a University of South Alabama scientist who was a leading researcher in the field of marine sulfur cycling and DMSP. Kiene passed away in 2019. The seventh DMS(P) Symposium was hosted by Bigelow Laboratory in collaboration with the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program; Schmidt Sciences: Climate; the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR); and the Surface Ocean-Atmosphere Study (SOLAS).

PR Newswire
Sep 17th, 2026
AI agents develop own languages humans can't understand, Schmidt Sciences research shows

Teams of AI agents can abandon English and develop their own languages that humans cannot understand, according to research from Schmidt Sciences' AI Agents Evolving Communication and Coordination programme. The findings come from GlossoGen, an open-source platform developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Edinburgh, with engineering by AE Studio. In controlled experiments, agents communicating in plain English developed new vocabularies and grammars over repeated task rounds. One instruction that began as a full English sentence later became "@D8fB", a string with no English meaning that other agents understood and acted upon. The researchers warn this poses challenges for AI safety practices that depend on humans reading agent communications. New languages emerged only under specific conditions: agents needed pressure to communicate efficiently, opportunities to adjust strategy between rounds, and access to the most capable current models.

METR
Aug 14th, 2026
METR raises $71M to study autonomous AI capabilities and recursive self-improvement

METR has raised approximately $71 million in commitments over the past six months. The funding will support projects including studying autonomous AI capabilities, tracking recursive self-improvement, evaluating monitoring systems, conducting risk assessments, and investigating AI incidents. Major supporters include The Audacious Project, individuals from Jane Street, and foundations such as the Sijbrandij Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Schmidt Sciences, and the Packard Foundation. Individual donors include David Farhi, Geoff Ralston, Dylan Field, and Steve Newman. METR maintains independence from frontier AI companies and does not accept their funding or donations from their staff. The organisation is expanding its team and launching new projects whilst conducting cutting-edge tests of AI capabilities.

Cooperative AI
Jun 11th, 2026
$10m funding call launched with Schmidt Sciences, Google DeepMind, and ARIA.

$10m funding call launched with Schmidt Sciences, Google DeepMind, and ARIA. How do Cooperativeai ensure safety in a world with millions of interacting agents, built and deployed by many different actors? Today, the Cooperative AI Foundation - in partnership with Schmidt Sciences, Google DeepMind and Advanced Research and Invention Agency, and supported by Google.org - is announcing a new technical research fund of up to $10m for researchers worldwide. Cooperativeai is offering funding of up to $300,000 (Tier 1) and up to $1,000,000 (Tier 2) for independent or academic researchers and institutions to address the risks emerging from large-scale ecosystems of interacting AI agents, deployed by multiple actors. Applications are now open, with a submission deadline of 9 August AoE. Awardees are expected to be announced in Autumn 2026. More technical details and the application process can be found here. Why this matters. While most present-day cases involve teams of agents orchestrated by a single actor (or 'principal'), Cooperativeai is beginning to see the emergence of more complex ecosystems of agents deployed by different actors across shared digital infrastructure. These multi-principal, multi-agent interactions create new opportunities for cooperation and shared benefit, but also new risks, which means focusing only on the safety and alignment of individual models is insufficient. While some of these problems will be addressed by market forces, Cooperativeai expect others to fall through the gaps. This funding call aims to fill those gaps, catalysing the foundational scientific research needed to understand, evaluate, and control risks emerging from large-scale ecosystems of interacting AI agents, deployed by multiple actors. Research areas. Cooperativeai welcome proposals in four priority areas, and Cooperativeai anticipate some opportunities for collaboration between teams addressing different areas: * Sandboxes and testbeds: Building realistic, reproducible environments to evaluate, compare and accelerate progress across all areas of multi-agent safety. This includes virtual marketplaces, simulated ecosystems and multi-organisation workflows. * The science of agent networks: Understanding the safety-relevant properties of interacting agent populations, including investigating how collective capabilities emerge and scale, how networks fail or become volatile and how to detect dangerous, unexpected population-level properties. * Strengthening agent infrastructure: Stress-testing the protocols for identity, reputation and commitment that secure cross-platform agent interactions. * Oversight and control: Developing methods to monitor deployed agent populations and mitigate collective harms at scale. About the partners. Google DeepMind is an artificial intelligence research laboratory. Schmidt Sciences is a philanthropic organisation that funds unconventional research in science and technology. The Cooperative AI Foundation is a charitable entity supporting research that will improve the cooperative intelligence of advanced AI for the benefit of all. The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is a UK R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Google.org is the charitable arm of Google. It provides funding, programmes, and technical expertise to accelerate the missions of nonprofits in specific focus areas such as scientific progress. June 11, 2026 Lewis Hammond Research director. (C) Cooperative AI Foundation 2025 The Cooperative AI Foundation is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales under charity number 1201294, and incorporated as a company limited by guarantee established in England for charitable purposes only under company number 13485176. Its registered address is Courtenay House, Pynes Hill, Exeter, EX2 5AZ.

University of Arizona
May 6th, 2026
U of A will award about 10,000 degrees at Commencement.

U of A will award about 10,000 degrees at Commencement. University Communications May 6, 2026 University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella will confer about 10,000 bachelor's, master's, doctoral and professional degrees at the university's 162nd Commencement on May 15. The approximately 90-minute ceremony will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Casino Del Sol Stadium and will be livestreamed on YouTube. More than 30,000 guests attend the university's Commencement celebration each year. "Excitement is building across our campus as we prepare to celebrate the U of A Wildcat Class of 2026," said Heather Lukach, executive director for presidential events and university ceremonies. "Graduates and their families will soon be welcomed by a remarkable community of dedicated staff, faculty and volunteers from across the university, all coming together to create an unforgettable Commencement experience. It's a powerful moment to honor our graduates' hard work, resilience and achievements as they reach this important milestone in their life journey." This year's Commencement speaker is Eric Schmidt, former CEO and Chairman of Google, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences, and a leading architect in the era of artificial intelligence. He is currently chair and CEO of Relativity Space, author of four New York Times best-selling books, and co-founder with his wife, Wendy, of several philanthropic organizations working to make the world healthy, resilient and secure for all. The couple founded the Schmidt Family Foundation, Schmidt Ocean Institute, and most recently, Schmidt Sciences. Schmidt Sciences is partnering with the U of A as a key collaborator on Lazuli - the world's first fully privately funded space telescope. "The University of Arizona embodies the curiosity, rigor and bold imagination that will shape the next era of discovery - not just in science and technology, but in tackling the world's greatest challenges," Schmidt said. "The work being done here today will define what's possible tomorrow. I am honored to address the Class of 2026 as they step into a pivotal moment in history, full of extraordinary opportunity and responsibility." Information for guests. Casino Del Sol Stadium Gates 3, 4, 6 and 7 will open to guests at 6 p.m. Guest seating is first come, first served, and no tickets are required. The university will enforce game-day security procedures at all guest entrances, including the stadium's clear bag policy and screening through metal detectors. Large bags, backpacks, or parcels are not permitted, and all personal items must be carried in an approved clear bag. The SafeCats app provides campus maps, real-time garage occupancy, ceremony schedules and the latest safety updates. Honorary degree and Alumni Achievement Award recipients. Schmidt will receive an honorary Doctor of Science from the U of A College of Science. He is one of five honorary degree recipients. Alice Chaiten Baker will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Baker has helped advance the arts and social sciences at the University of Arizona and in Tucson through years of philanthropy, community leadership and advocacy for education. Gabrielle Giffords will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. After a 2011 shooting that killed six people and critically wounded then-Rep. Giffords, she focused on her recovery and eventually co-founded Americans for Responsible Solutions, an advocacy and research organization later renamed GIFFORDS. F. Ronald Rayner will receive an honorary Doctor of Science from the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences. Rayner is an innovator in arid-land agriculture, helping develop no-till and minimum-tillage systems designed to conserve water - and has long advocated for student success at the U of A. Scott Stuber will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts. A proud alumnus of the college, Stuber has spent decades redefining how films are created, distributed and experienced. He served as chairman of Netflix Films from 2017 to 2024 and is partnering with Amazon MGM Studios to relaunch the historic United Artists and to finance and release movies from his new production company. Cisco Aguilar will receive the university's Alumni Achievement Award. Aguilar serves as Nevada's Secretary of State, focusing on modernizing, innovating and building transparency in the office. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in business administration; 2004 with a master's in business administration; and 2004 with a Juris Doctor. Student award winners. Seven outstanding graduates will be presented awards at Commencement. The awards and their recipients are: Provost Award: Grant Palmer, who is graduating summa cum laude with honors with a Bachelor of Science in medicine and a minor in biochemistry. Robert Logan Nugent Award: Alicia Salazar Conteras, who is graduating with dual degrees in speech, language, and hearing sciences, and in Spanish; and Lane Vazquez Luna, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry with a minor in classics. Robie Gold Medal Awards: Braelyn Huff, who is graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and in politics, philosophy, economics, and law; and Gabriel Trinidad, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in physiology and medical sciences, with minors in Spanish and biochemistry. Merrill P. Freeman Medals: Imon Contractor, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in operations and supply chain management; and Nicholas Davis, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in accounting.