Join us in honor of Dr. Weber's remarkable 46-year legacy at the University of Michigan, where his impact as a scientist, educator, and mentor truly shaped the field of environmental engineering. Celebrated as one of the "One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era" by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, his esteemed career is an inspiration to us all. Don't miss this opportunity to connect at the lecture that continues his tradition of excellence and innovation and encourage your students to do the same!

A reception, featuring light refreshments, will be held in the B18 Dining Hall at NCRC from 12:45 p.m. to 1:25 p.m. The lecture will commence at 1:30 p.m. and will conclude at 2:30 p.m. A question and answer session will follow from 2:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. The event will conclude with closing remarks from 2:45 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Seminar Title:
"Ionic Compatibilization of Plastics to Reduce Environmental Impacts"

Abstract:
We simultaneously associate plastics with both waste in the form of massive landfill requirements and a tendency to escape into sensitive ecosystems and also as a potential solution to energy and climate crises in the form of cheap, lightweight, safe batteries and other energy devices. In both cases, however, one attribute of polymers is simultaneously its greatest flaw and a tremendous opportunity in terms of improved performance: processibility. The inability to recycle plastics is at least in part rooted in the array of chemically dissimilar commodity plastics on the market and our inability to recycle such a mixed stream. In this talk, I will demonstrate the tremendous utility of electrostatic interactions in reducing the potential environmental impacts of plastics. For example, we have recently demonstrated that incorporating even a single charged group per polymer chain causes highly immiscible polymers to form homogeneous blends with high mechanical strength. Similar electrostatic attractions are so strong as to force conjugated (conducting polymers) to form high solids loading solutions that have shown great utility as battery binders.

Bio:
Rachel A. Segalman received her B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin and Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Université Louis Pasteur before joining the faculty of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories from 2004-2014 during a portion of this time she also served as the Materials Science Division Director at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. In 2014, she moved to UC Santa Barbara to be the Kramer Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials and became Department Chair of Chemical Engineering in 2015. In 2018 she also became the Schlinger Distinguished Chair of Chemical Engineering and the Associate Director of the UT/UCSB/LBL EFRC: Center for Materials for Water and Energy Systems. Segalman’s group works on controlling the structure and thermodynamics of functional polymers including polymeric ionic liquids and semiconducting and bioinspired polymers. Among other awards, Segalman received the Journal of Polymer Science Innovation Award, the Dillon Medal from the American Physical Society, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar. She is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Materials Research Society.