CAS Brings the Brightest Early-Career Researchers from Around the Globe Together for the 2017 SciFinder® Future Leaders Program

Columbus, Ohio (July 10, 2017) – CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, announced today the 2017 SciFinder Future Leaders. Twenty-five international Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers will visit CAS headquarters in Columbus, OH this August to collaborate on exciting new initiatives to support the scientific community, including the latest CAS workflow solution, SciFindern.

For the first time this year, participants will also visit ACS headquarters in Washington, DC, where they will take part in ACS on Campus, an outreach initiative of ACS Publications and CAS. As one of several career-spanning ACS programs that includes SciFinder Future Leaders and the Talented 12 from C&EN, ACS on Campus brings leaders in chemistry, publishing, research, science communication and career development to universities around the world to present seminars on how to:

  • Publish in top journals
  • Find a job
  • Effectively use research tools like SciFinder
  • Communicate your science
  • Write grant proposals
  • Build industry partnerships
  • Prepare for a changing employment landscape


​At the conclusion, participants will stay in Washington, DC to learn about chemistry’s impact on the global economy at the 254th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, a platform for scientific professionals to present, publish and discuss the most exciting research discoveries in the field.


“For someone who has only just started, I’m most excited at the chance to meet like-minded people from all over the world and gain perspective about building a successful career in science,” said Lisa Alcock, a Ph.D. student at Flinders University in Australia and 2017 SciFinder Future Leader. “CAS has a lot to offer when it comes to gathering information and resources in the chemical sciences, so I plan to take full advantage of this opportunity. Upon completion of the program, I hope to have gained many new skills and insight to aid in completion of my Ph.D. in a timely fashion and hopefully kick start the rest of my scientific career.”

Awarded for their academic accomplishments and scientific merit of their research, the 2017 SciFinder Future Leaders are:

  • Lisa Alcock, Flinders University, Australia
  • Alyssa-Jennifer Avestro, Durham University, United Kingdom
  • Nicola L. Bell, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • Alice Chang, California Institute of Technology, United States
  • Xiaoxia Chang, Tianjin University, China
  • Morgan J. Cichon, The Ohio State University, United States
  • Craig Fraser, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • Wai Chung Fu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
  • Minjia Hu, University of Alberta, Canada
  • Elisa Ivry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  • Torsten John, Leipzig University, Germany, Leibniz Institute of Surface Modification, Germany, and Monash University, Australia
  • Sanaz Khorasani, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
  • Youngjin Kim, Seoul National University, South Korea
  • Nacole King, National Institute of Standards and Technology, United States
  • Jeffrey Y. W. Mak, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Australia
  • Caitlyn Mills, Northeastern University, United States
  • Biswajit Mondal, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, India
  • Gaston Richelle, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Michael D. Schulz, California Institute of Technology, United States
  • Magaret Sivapragasam, Centre of Research in Ionic Liquids, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia
  • Andy Tay, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
  • Gabriela D. Tormet-Gonzalez, University of Campinas, Brazil
  • Galina Viryasova, Moscow State University, Russia
  • Jie Wang, East China University of Science and Technology, China
  • Masafumi Yanase, University of Tokyo, Japan



To learn more about the SciFinder Future Leaders program, visit www.cas.org/futureleaders.