Segalman studied chemical engineering at University of Texas at Austin (UT). She graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1998. She moved UCSB for her graduate studies, where she received her Ph.D. in 2002. At UCSB she worked under the supervision of Edward J. Kramer.[5][6] Her research thesis was on controlling long range order in block copolymer thin films.[7] After completing her Ph.D., Segalman was a Chateaubriand postdoctoral fellow at the Ecole Européenne de Chimie, Polymères et Matériaux working under Georges Hadziioannou.[8]
Research and career
In 2004 Segalman was appointed as the Charles Wilke Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at University of California, Berkeley, and a Faculty Research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) Materials Science Division.[8][9] In 2013 she was appointed as the acting director of LBL Materials Science Division.[10]
Segalman was recruited to UCSB in 2014 as the Kramer Professor of Materials in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials.[11] The same year she was also appointed as the chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Warren and Katherine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering.[11] She is the associate director of the Center for Materials for Water Energy System, a joint center between UCSB, LBL, and UT funded by the Department of Energy.[3]
Segalman's research focuses on understanding and controlling the self-assembly, structure, and properties of functional polymers.[12] Her laboratory studies polymeric materials for applications such as thermoelectrics, photovoltaics, and anti-fouling coating for ships.[12][13]