Ren Hao Soon named 2025 Schmidt Science Fellow

April 15, 2025 – Ren Hao Soon, a former Ph.D. researcher in the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), has been named a 2025 Schmidt Science Fellow. This prestigious honour, awarded by Schmidt Sciences in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, recognises exceptional early-career scientists poised to advance science through bold interdisciplinary research. As a Fellow, Ren Hao will receive up to two years of funding and join a global network of researchers dedicated to tackling the world’s most pressing challenges.

Ren Hao completed his doctoral work at MPI-IS, where he specialised in the design, fabrication and control of untethered magnetic millirobots – tiny, wirelessly powered systems actuated by magnetic fields. These systems convert remotely applied energy into mechanical deformation, enabling them to navigate precisely in complex, highly tortuous environments inside the human body. These millirobots have also demonstrated the ability to carry and deliver therapeutic payloads such as drugs, genes, hydrogels, or even living cells to targeted sites. Despite these advances, the use of such robots in clinical applications is severely limited because they typically rely on a single form of functionality: shape-morphing for locomotion or surface-level cargo delivery.

Ren Hao’s Ph.D. research tackled this limitation by introducing multiple new functionalities to existing millirobotic platforms. By challenging the conventional “fully soft” design paradigm and incorporating novel mechanical architectures, he enabled robots to generate forces up to 1000 times greater than previously possible, and integrated thermal and electrical energy modalities into these systems. Armed with these new functionalities, advanced capabilities such as on-demand tissue puncture for long-term anchoring and sub-surface drug delivery into tumour spheroids, targeted on-demand remote heating for tissue devitalisation and mitigation of bleeding were demonstrated on ex vivo porcine tissues – without compromising the untethered robots’ existing shape morphing capabilities. Parts of his work attracted widespread media attention in over 60 news outlets globally, including Associated Press, Der Tagesspiegel and The Independent. These advancements pave the way for the development of next-generation magnetic miniature soft robots capable of addressing real-world clinical problems.

As a Schmidt Science Fellow, Ren Hao will pivot from mechanical engineering to biomedical sciences, focusing on the treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Specifically, he will investigate how mechanical stimuli influence the body’s natural production of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) – a hormone central to emerging treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy. While GLP-1-based therapies have shown promise in regulating blood sugar and promoting weight loss, they can also come with significant side effects. As such, Ren Hao aims to develop next-generation therapies that can stimulate endogenous GLP-1 production through precisely engineered mechanical cues – offering a more natural and potentially safer alternative to pharmaceutical interventions.

Launched in 2017, the Schmidt Science Fellows program supports outstanding recent Ph.D. graduates in natural sciences, engineering, computing, and mathematics, enabling them to undertake postdoctoral research in a field different from their doctoral training. In addition to funding a one- or two-year placement, the program offers a world-class Science Leadership curriculum and fosters a global network of interdisciplinary leaders. The 2025 cohort includes researchers from 15 nationalities across North America, Europe, and Asia, united by a mission to pursue curiosity-driven science with real-world impact.