Mercer Times

Theo Gibbs, a graduate student from Princeton's Program in Quantitative and Computational Biology, has been named a 2025 Schmidt Science Fellow. The announcement came on April 2, identifying Gibbs as one of 32 early-career researchers selected for a fellowship focused on advancing interdisciplinary science. The Schmidt Science Fellows, an initiative founded in 2017, offers a one- or two-year postdoctoral research opportunity at a leading research institution.

Wendy Schmidt, who co-founded the fellowship program with her husband, Eric, a Princeton alumnus from 1976, emphasized the importance of supporting early-career researchers: “Philanthropic funding of scientific research, and especially support of early-career researchers, has never been more important."

Schmidt also highlighted the goals of the fellowship program, stating, “By providing Schmidt Science Fellows with support, community, and freedom to work across disciplines and gain new insights, we hope they’ll tackle some of the world’s most vexing challenges, achieve breakthroughs and help create a healthier, more resilient world for all.”

Gibbs, who is set to complete his Ph.D. next month, focuses his research on bacterial pathogens, which the Schmidt Science Fellows describe as "the microscopic organisms that infect a wide range of hosts, impacting human health, agricultural production and other societally important biological processes." At Princeton, Gibbs's studies have been guided by Simon Levin, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and director of Princeton's Center for BioComplexity, along with Jonathan Levine, J.N. Allison Professor of Environmental Studies and department chair of EEB.

The research supported by the fellowship aims to explore the mechanisms behind colonization resistance in the human microbiome. According to the Schmidt organization, "Previous research has revealed that the human microbiome can 'resist colonization by harmful bacteria even when these bacteria are not eradicated by our antibiotics, but the exact mechanism behind this resistance is not well understood."

As a fellow, Gibbs intends to investigate how ecological interactions within a diverse microbiome contribute to colonization resistance. His methods will include a combination of molecular biology techniques and theoretical approaches from statistical physics, with the goal of identifying how microbial metabolism prevents diseases, ultimately aiding the development of new probiotics.