A native of Germany, Dr. Schneewind received both his M.D. and his Ph.D from the University of Cologne. He obtained subsequent post-doctoral training at Rockefeller University's Laboratory of Bacteriology and Immunology under the mentorship of Dr. Vincent Fischetti. In 1992, he received his first appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, where he was subsequently promoted to Associate Professor and Professor. Dr. Schneewind joined the Biological Sciences Division faculty at the University of Chicago in 2001. Dr. Schneewind's research program examines the mechanisms and strategies whereby pathogenic bacteria cause human diseases. His research has produced more than 250 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Schneewind is editor for the Journal of Bacteriology and Annual Review of Microbiology. Additionally, he has served as a consultant to many well-known pharmaceutical companies, lending his expertise to translational research efforts. Dr. Schneewind has received many honors and awards during the course of his distinguished career. In 1995, he received the Stein-Oppenheimer Research Award and in 2000 he received the Shipley Award from Harvard Medical School. He was named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Member of the American Academy of Microbiology. From 2003-2014, Dr. Schneewind served as the Principal Investigator of the Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence (GLRCE) for Biodefense, a program supporting a consortium of institutions funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Dr. Schneewind aided the successful NIH application and construction for the University of Chicago’s state-of-the-art Biosafety Level 3 facility, the Howard T. Ricketts Laboratory, at Argonne National Laboratory. He has served on National Institutes of Health study sections and as academic counsel for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Pathogenic bacteria cause human diseases. MRSA (Staphylococcus aureus soft tissue and bloodstream infections), anthrax (Bacillus anthracis), and plague (Yersinia pestis).