Alexander Schmidt | Head of Vaccine Development
Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute

Alex Schmidt serves as Head of Vaccine Development at the Gates Medical Research Institute.  He joined Gates MRI in 2018, after 7 years with GSK Vaccines, where he led clinical vaccine development programs for dengue, RSV, and influenza virus vaccines. Prior to joining industry, he spent ten years in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, U.S. National Institutes of Health, and five years in academic medicine in Berlin, Germany. Alex received his M.D. from Freie Universität Berlin, trained in pediatrics at Charité and at The German Heart Center in Berlin, and held a faculty position in pediatrics at Charité. He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, the American Society of Virology and the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is a recipient of the NIH Director’s Award and several NIAID awards. Alex’s main interests are vaccine development and global health. He started his research career in lab-based research on host-pathogen interactions for negative strand RNA viruses, and then focused on preclinical, translational, and clinical vaccine development. At the Gates Medical Research Institute, Alex leads vaccine development efforts for tuberculosis and malaria.