Talented 12 Symposium Program
Monday, August 24, 2026, 2 PM - 5 PM CT
Room W190b, McCormick Place Convention Center,
Chicago, IL, ACS Fall 2026
Symposium will begin with brief remarks by C&EN Global Editor in Chief Nick Ishmael-Perkins.
2:00-2:05 Introductory remarks by C&EN Senior Correspondent Bethany Halford
2:05-2:35 Keynote address by Teri W. Odom
2:35-3:15 Talented 12 Talks
2:35-2:45 Aisulu Aitbekova
2:45-2:55 Soumitra Athavale
2:55-3:05 Martina Benešová-Schäfer
3:05-3:15 Abdoulaye Djire
3:15-3:40 Intermission
3:40-4:40 Talented 12 Talks
3:40-3:50 Jim Cregg
3:50-4:00 Behnaz Ghaffari
4:00-4:10 Chaochao Dun
4:10-4:20 Euna Yoo
4:20-4:30 Adrian Figg
4:30-4:40 Loza Tadesse
4:40-5:20 Closing remarks and networking
Keynote Speaker
Teri W. Odom is the Joan Husting Madden and William H. Madden, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at
Northwestern University. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University.
Odom is an expert in the design of structured nanoscale materials that exhibit extraordinary size and shape-dependent optical and physical properties. She was founding Chair of the Noble Metal Nanoparticles Gordon Research Conference and founding Executive Editor of ACS Photonics, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Nano Letters.
Meet the Talented 12 Class of 2026
Aisulu Aitbekova
Carnegie Mellon University
Soumitra Athavale
University of California,
Los Angeles
Martina Benešová-Schäfer
German Cancer Research Center
Jim Cregg
Revolution Medicines
Milan Delor
Columbia University
Abdoulaye Djire
Texas A&M University
Adrian Figg
Virginia Tech
Behnaz Ghaffari
Arkema
Chaochao Dun
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Euna Yoo
US National Cancer Institute
Shuo Han
Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Loza Tadesse
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
About the Talented 12
C&EN's Talented 12 Program identifies and celebrates outstanding early-career chemists across all areas of chemistry to be highlighted in an annual special issue of C&EN.
