CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, has selected 31 Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral scholars for its 2026 Future Leaders program, drawn from a competitive global applicant pool numbering in the hundreds.
The cohort represents institutions across more than a dozen countries, including MIT, Caltech, Stanford, ETH Zürich, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil), and Griffith University (Australia). Their research areas, cheminformatics, synthetic biology and materials science, are among the fields drawing significant R&D investment, making the cohort a useful signal of where emerging talent is concentrating.
Established in 2010, the CAS Future Leaders program provides early-career scientists with leadership and communication training alongside exposure to how CAS manages and transforms scientific data for research and commercial applications. This year’s participants will convene at CAS headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, from August 17–22 before presenting their research at the ACS Fall 2026 conference in Chicago. Participants also receive a three-year ACS membership.
“I am truly honored to join the 2026 CAS Future Leaders class alongside an extraordinary cohort of scientists,” said Nitesh Sanghai of the University of Manitoba. “This program is an incredible opportunity to forge powerful connections, grow as a humanized leader, and amplify curiosity-driven research that moves science forward.”
CAS also extends virtual programming to additional applicants through its Future Leaders Top 100 initiative.
The full list of 2026 CAS Future Leaders is available at cas.org/about/futureleaders.