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Faculty of Arts and Science PhD candidate Daniel Reddy has been selected for the 2025 CAS Future Leaders program. He is one of only three researchers based in Canada selected this year and joins a pool of 35 selectees from more than 1,000 applications.

Studying in the Department of Chemistry under supervisor Dr. Richard Oleschuk, Reddy joins a group of exceptional PhD students and postdoctoral scholars from around the world to take the next steps in their science leadership journey this summer.

“It is an honor to be selected as one of the 35 individuals in this year's CAS Future Leaders program out of over 1,000 applicants around the world, including both graduate students and postdoctoral scholars,” says. “Becoming a CAS Future Leader was a process that has been three years in the making. In a ‘Red Light-Yellow Light-Green Light’-like fashion - I first applied to the CAS Future Leaders program in 2023, then again in 2024 being selected as a member of the Top 100 program, and finally this year in 2025 when I was accepted. Each instance has marked a point of reflection/self-assessment, and each outcome has been increasingly motivating to persist/persevere and keep moving forward.”

The was launched in 2010 by CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, to fill an identified gap in leadership training for scientists. Now boasting over 360 alumni from top organizations, the program provides an opportunity for early-career scientists to enhance their leadership skills, engage in scientific discourse, and connect with peer scientists and innovators from around the world.

“Dan is one of our rising early-career researchers, and this award is well deserved,” Interim Dean Bob Lemieux says. “This award will provide him with leadership training and networking opportunities that will enable him to take the next step in his academic journey. I offer my congratulations both as the Interim Dean and a former professor in the Department of Chemistry.”

Reddy’s research interests intersect with related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals including #3, “Good Health and Well-Being,” and #12, “Responsible Consumption and Production,” and aim to address global change-drivers by providing accessible techniques to minimize sample volumes and leverage the sensitive characterization power, both qualitative and quantitative, of microfluidics combined with automation and analytical techniques like mass spectrometry.

"Generally, I am interested in exploring the development, optimization, and application of analytical techniques to problems rooted in basic science and clinical research. In a specific example, my research aims to enhance disease screening and reduce the demands of animal testing. These ambitions are unified by the common theme of sample volume reductions, for which I have developed a microfluidic technology that captures liquid volumes almost 1/50th the size of the average human teardrop, i.e., nanoliter-level. Combined with mass spectrometry, the device, i.e., the ‘NanoWand,’ is a valuable addition to the measurement science toolkit.”

“Dan has significant breadth of research experience for someone at the early stages of their career including analytical chemistry, chemical safety, microbiology, and organic synthesis which he has carried out across different institutional settings, including academic, US government, and industrial laboratories,” says Richard Oleschuk (Department of Chemistry), Reddy’s supervisor. “Dan’s project involving industrial partner Sciex (instrument manufacturer, Concord, ON) is poised to impact the filed diagnostics. “

Professionally, Reddy says winning this award is a career highlight, as the award recognizes both his research and leadership potential. Many alumni of the CAS Future Leaders program have gone on to become role models and leaders in their respective (chemical) fields around the world.

“One such CAS Future Leaders alumna who has made a huge positive impact on my career is the Department of Chemistry's own Assistant Professor, Dr. Farnaz Heidar-Zadeh, who was selected as a CAS Future Leader in 2019 while she was a postdoctoral scholar at Ghent University (Belgium). I was fortunate to meet and work with Dr. Heidar-Zadeh when I founded and led the (Q-ACS) as President from Winter 2022 - Fall 2024.

“I am grateful to have been welcomed into such a supportive community as the Department of Chemistry at Queen's, as well as the research group of my supervisor, Dr. Richard Oleschuk. Furthermore, I am deeply grateful for the support to become a CAS Future Leader that I have received from the Government of Canada as an NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar in Analytical Chemistry.”