When an expedition to deep waters against the Argentine coast this summer discovered coral forests from another world, sea stars of neon tones and dozens of other unknown species, the scientific team not only attributed merit to advanced images or in good time. He also attributed the merit to Wendy Schmidt.
“This expedition would have been impossible without the Schmidt Ocean Institute,” said Dr. Martín Brogger, Marine Biologist of the National Council of Scientific Research and Techniques of Argentina and Senior Scientific on board. He estimates that the value of time, crew, equipment and technology provided by the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) amounts to about 1.5 million dollars (approximately 1.3 billion Argentine pesos), an investment, according to him, which would have been “almost impossible to match” with public funds. However, under the SOI model, scientists have access to the ship and their resources, and share their research openly with the public.
Forbes 2025 sustainability leaders list
“That is the matter. It’s about putting science at all service,” said Schmidt to Forbes .
That trip, one of the almost 100 expeditions supported by the Schmidt Oceanographic Institute, marked a milestone for Argentina, where the investigation of this scale is rarely viable due to the limited scientific infrastructure. He also marked a symbolic milestone for Schmidt’s growing role in global climatic philanthropy. She and her husband, former executive director of Google, Eric Schmidt (whose fortune, according to Forbes it is 30.2 billion dollars), they have allocated a significant part of the 2,000 million dollars they have donated throughout their lives to environmental initiatives, including more than 450 million dollars to the Schmidt Oceanographic Institute (SOI), where Wendy presides. With the return of Donald Trump to the White House and a second wave of federal cuts aimed at climatic financing and scientific independence, which is at stake for the private financing of science has never been so important.
“We are doing the usual,” said Schmidt a Forbes When asked if his strategy had changed with Trump’s return. “But the urgency is greater now. We are redoubled the effort.”
Schmidt’s response to growing political obstacles has been expanding, not going back. Instead of reorganizing priorities, it is expanding existing programs, accelerating the deadlines and supporting researchers whose work could otherwise stagnate without support. This constancy has become a lifeguard for the scientific community and led it to be included in the list of sustainability leaders 2025 forbes which today recognizes 50 people who drive transformative climate progress throughout the world.
Misha Vallejo Prut for the Schmidt Ocean Institute
“The United States has long been a leader in climatic science. When we retire, the impact is global,” said Dr. Gretchen Goldman, president and executive director of the Union of concerned scientists and former deputy director of the Office of Scientific and Technological Policy of the White House. Goldman has registered more than 200 attacks on science during Trump’s first mandate. “Wendy Schmidt’s financing has alive entire fields.” Goldman points out Schmidt’s support to areas vulnerable to political interference or budget cuts, such as the collection of climate data and scientific communication, as examples of where this livelihood has been more important.
It does not try to control science. Try to make sure it survives. Frederik Richards, Geophysical and Schmidt Scientific Scholarship
Since SOI co -founded in 2009 with her husband Eric, Wendy has led initiatives that have helped discover almost 50 new species (and hundreds are pending review), she has supported more than 1400 marine and oceanic scientists, and has broadcast thousands of hours of deep water images live. The majority of the dives, from 10 to 12 hours, used to attract only a few thousand spectators, who could see what was happening at the same time as scientists aboard the SOI ship. But the expedition to Argentina became unexpectedly viral, with more than 19 million visualizations and 6.8 million hours of visualization, a large part of them from young Argentines.
“For many, it was the first time they saw what lied in their own marine depths: colors, life, wealth,” says Brogger. “That type of visibility is rare. It makes science feel real and relevant.”
This is the type of high -risk research and high profitability that is increasingly difficult to finance through traditional channels. Through a constellation of initiatives – among them SOI, Schmidt Sciences, the Foundation of the Schmidt family and 11th Hour Racing – Schmidt has filled the growing public support vacuum. The couple’s financing covers climatic modeling, the monitoring of biodiversity and tools that facilitate the collection and open exchange of scientific data, with special attention to the ocean.
Dr. Gretchen Goldman, President and Executive Director of the Union of concerned scientists
“The ocean drives our time, our climate, our atmosphere. It absorbs most of the heat. And yet we know very little about it,” Schmidt said Forbes . Long trajectory sailor states that her time at sea deepened her understanding of the ocean as a dynamic and interconnected system. “You start understanding how alive it is, how time, weather, everything is molding.” He emphasized that the ocean is essential for climatic stability, biodiversity and global systems, but remains one of the less understood parts of the planet. “We need to understand the whole system if we are going to protect it. And that means looking in places where we have never looked before.”
Schmidt Oceanographic Institute
Schmidt’s systemic approach is what, according to many researchers, makes your support so unique. “It does not try to control science,” says Dr. Frederik Richards, a geophysicist who became one of Schmidt’s first scientific fellows in 2018, at 26. “Try to ensure your endurance.”
The scholarship, launched in collaboration with Rhodes Trust, places prominent postdoctoral scientists in laboratories outside their specialization fields to promote interdisciplinary advances and provide them with $ 110,000 as a stipend for a two -year stay. For Richards, this meant moving from geophysics to modeling sea level, an unusual decision that helped him obtain a subsidy of 1.5 million euros (1.6 million dollars) of the European Research Council to expand his Earth2sea project, which uses AI to improve forecasts for the 700 million people living in coastal areas prone to floods.
“That scholarship changed everything,” he says. “It gave me the opportunity to risk. The financing was very generous and the message was: ‘It is fine to fail. It dreams of great.’ That is extremely rare in science.”
Richards also received an additional Catalyst scholarship as part of the Schmidt Science Fellows program (up to $ 10,000) to support interdisciplinary collaboration among the fellows. “Those networks are as valuable as money,” he says. “They encourage a science that transcends any field.”
Misha Vallejo Prut for the Schmidt Ocean Institute
Schmidt organizations have also increased bridge financing for initiatives that have lost financing, such as the Keeling curve, which monitors atmospheric co₂ levels and lost federal support in 2014, and for rural public media. Earlier this year, the Schmidt family foundation helped launch the Public Media Bridge Fund to support small stations that face collapse due to the decrease in public subsidies.
People protect what they understand. If we can help people to see what is at stake and what is possible, that changes everything.
Wendy Schmidt
Even so, Schmidt hastened to point out the limits of private capital. “We can finance the work. We can demonstrate what is possible,” he says. “But we can’t do it alone.”
Goldman coincides. “Private philanthropy can gain time, but cannot establish regulatory policies or build long -term infrastructure,” he says. «What Wendy Schmidt is doing well is to gain time for science. But he can’t do it forever. We need governments to commit again ».
That urgency has shaped the schmidt evolution portfolio. Its philanthropy now supports all kinds of projects, from local food systems (The Hive, a shared commercial cuisine for small food entrepreneurs, launched in 2024), to immersive experiences (AGOG, which helps creators and leaders of non -profit organizations to take advantage of extended reality, also launched in 2024), and climate communication. In February, Jigsaw Productions acquired, the documentary study of the winner of the Oscar Alex Gibney, to promote the research narrative on the climate and science of public interest.
“People protect what they understand,” Schmidt said Forbes . “If we can help people to see what is at stake and what is possible, that changes everything.”
This amplitude of investment reflects a greater ambition: not only to finance individual projects, but to build a lasting infrastructure for science, the narration of stories and collaboration.
“It has radically transformed the possibilities of profound exploration,” Brogger said. “And he does it prioritizing collaboration and public benefit.”
In Argentina, this was evident. In a country where biodiversity is threatened and scientific financing remains precarious, the expedition became a national event.
“Not only did they see corals and sea stars,” Brogger said. “They saw someone believed it was worth doing this job.”
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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