SynBioBeta Speaker
Tim Schnabel
Dr. Tim Schnabel is a scientist, bioengineer, entrepreneur, and Forbes 30 under 30 honoree in social impact. He is currently serving as the Founder and CEO of Switch Bioworks, a biotechnology company located in San Carlos, California, focused on engineering microbes that produce cost-effective, sustainable fertilizer to tackle climate change.Originally from Germany and Namibia, Tim came to the US to study chemical engineering and economics at Stanford University. Under the guidance of Professor James Swartz, he researched the biological production of hydrogen fuel from sunlight and received Stanford's Kennedy Thesis Prize, the highest university recognition for undergraduate research. Following his early training in biotechnology, Tim pursued a MS and PhD in bioengineering at Stanford, advised by Professor Elizabeth Sattely. Dr. Schnabel’s PhD thesis titled "Engineering Ammonia Production in Free-Living Diazotrophs for Plant Fertilization" is published in two single-author papers and featured on the cover of ACS Synthetic Biology. Tim was also a scholar and teacher of the highly competitive Accel Leadership Fellows, a program that accelerates entrepreneurship training of PhD candidates in engineering. Transitioning through an “Entrepreneur in Training” Postdoc in the Stanford Bioengineering Department Chair’s lab, Professor Jennifer Cochran, Tim founded Switch Bioworks – “the living fertilizer company” – of which he is CEO and on the Board of Directors.In his free time, Tim is a beekeeper, pilot, homebrewer, and author of "Wake up! A young person's guide to spirituality."
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