CAS announces the participants selected for the 2025 CAS Future Leaders program

The esteemed initiative equips early-career scientists with leadership training and networking opportunities

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) specializing in scientific knowledge management, is excited to announce the participants in the 2025 CAS Future Leaders™ program. The new cohort features 35 early-career scientists from 12 countries, conducting research in fields such as nanotechnology, computational chemistry, materials science, green chemistry, and more.

“Congratulations Class of 2025”

During the in-person program, which will take place in August, participants will attend leadership and career development workshops, learn about mentorship from industry leaders, participate in science discourse, and forge connections with fellow scientists.

"We are proud to equip early-career scientists with leadership and communication skills that enable them to have an even greater impact in their areas of expertise. The record number of applicants this year shows that scientists appreciate the program's purpose to help them grow as leaders," said Peter Carlton, CAS Future Leaders program director.

The 2025 CAS Future Leaders:

• Farbod Amirghasemi, University of Southern California
• Carla Arnau del Valle, Universitat Politècnica de València
• Ridwan T. Ayinla, Mississippi State University
• Kazuho Ban, Osaka University
• Shivali Banerjee, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Alexandra Barth, North Carolina State University
• Hudson de Aguiar Bicalho, Concordia University
• Dorothea Böken, University of Cambridge
• Karen de la Vega Hernández, Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
• Fábio Godoy Delolo, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
• Jingshan S. Du, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Dmitry Eremin, California Institute of Technology
• Alexis Gabbey, University of Toronto
• Wenhao Gao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Reginaldo J. Gomes, University of Chicago
• Jesse Gordon, Harvard University
• Sophie Gutenthaler-Tietze, Heinrich Heine University
• Nia Harmon, Yale University
• Sejun Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Tamra (Blue) Mbeuh Lahom Lot, Pennsylvania State University
• Yuanwei Li, Stanford University
• Zhi Lin, University of California, San Francisco
• Raul A. Marquez-Montes, University of Texas at Austin
• Eva J. Meeus, ETH Zürich
• Daniel Reddy, Queen's University at Kingston
• Meg Shieh, Brown University
• Great C. Umenweke, University of Kentucky
• M. Iqbal Bakti Utama, Northwestern University
• Vyshnavi Vennelakanti, Princeton University
• M. Shaharyar Wani, Princeton University
• Allison Wong, University of Minnesota
• Zuping Xiong, Zhejiang University
• Francisco Yarur Villanueva, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
• Max Yavitt, University of Otago
• Yan Zhang, California Institute of Technology

"I am honored to be selected for the 2025 CAS Future Leaders program alongside other exceptional scientists. This experience will strengthen my leadership skills for a career as an independent investigator, and I am excited to learn how to communicate my passion for science with greater impact," said Dr. Alexandra Barth from North Carolina State University.

The two-week program will also offer participants exclusive insight into CAS operations and how the organization provides leading innovators with access to and analysis of published scientific information from around the globe. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to present their research at the ACS Fall 2025 conference in Washington, DC, and will receive a three-year ACS membership.

Beyond the 35 in-person participants, CAS will again this year extend virtual programming and additional career support to 65 more exceptional candidates through the CAS Future Leaders Top 100 initiative.

For more details about the 2025 CAS Future Leaders program and this year's class, visit www.cas.org/about/futureleaders.

About CAS

CAS connects the world's scientific knowledge to accelerate breakthroughs that improve lives. We empower global innovators to efficiently navigate today's complex data landscape and make confident decisions in each phase of the innovation journey. As a specialist in scientific knowledge management, our team builds the largest authoritative collection of human-curated scientific data in the world and provides essential information solutions, services, and expertise. Scientists, patent professionals, and business leaders across industries rely on CAS to help them uncover opportunities, mitigate risks, and unlock shared knowledge so they can get from inspiration to innovation faster. CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society. Connect with us at cas.org.