Rachel Segalman Delivers Sussman Lecture Discussing How to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Plastics

Hosted by the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering on April 13, this year's Jeanne and Martin Sussman Endowed Lecture welcomed Rachel Segalman, Edward Noble Kramer Distinguished Professor and Vice Chancellor for Research at University of California, Santa Barbara, to give a lecture titled “Ionic Compatibilization of Plastics to Reduce Environmental Impacts.” Over 60 members of the Tufts community attended.  

Mixed plastic waste is difficult to recycle, contributing significantly to landfill waste and contaminating sensitive ecosystems. This is partially because the different types of chemicals that make up plastic don’t blend well. In her lecture, Segalman discussed a method that can make these mixed plastics more homogenized by adding charged groups to polymer chains, which changes the attraction to pull them into a more uniform blend. Her research demonstrated that incorporating even just one charged group per polymer chain causes polymers to form homogeneous blends with high mechanical strength.  

Segalman earned her bachelor’s degree with Highest Honors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas (1998) and her doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2002). She served as a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories before returning to UC Santa Barbara in 2014. Among other awards, Segalman has received the E.O. Lawrence Prize from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Andy Acrivos Award for Professional Progress from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Journal of Polymer Science Innovation Award, and the Dillon Medal from the American Physical Society.   

The Sussman lecture honors Martin Sussman, who was a professor in the Chemical Engineering Department for 37 years and a Professor Emeritus following his retirement. He was the chair of the Tufts Chemical Engineering Department for ten years, during which programs leading to the MS and PhD degree were introduced and the faculty size doubled. He was a fellow of both the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and American Institute of Chemists, the author of two books on thermodynamics, and held more than 20 patents.

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