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Chelsea Edwards (Fed)

Chemical Engineer

Pronouns

she/her

Neutron-Condensed Matter Science Group

chelsea.edwards [at] nist.gov

(301) 975-4854

Staff Employment

NIST - NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, NIST Center for Neutron Research (2024-present)

Caltech - Graduate Researcher, Division of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering (2018)

Dow Chemical Co. - Intern, Dow Coating Materials Industrial R&D (Summer 2017)

LiquiGlide, Inc. - Intern, Surface & Coatings Engineering Group (Summer 2015)

Staff Education

PhD in Chemical Engineering - University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) (2018-2024)

BS in Chemical Engineering - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (2013-2017)

Dr. Edwards is a postdoctoral scholar in soft materials engineering, with research expertise in the micro/nano-scale structure, formulation, and processing of proteins and polyelectrolyte emulsions and hydrogels. She uses a variety of small-angle scattering, microfluidics, microscopy, and high-throughput experimental techniques to characterize and modulate the structure of these materials. Applications include pharmaceutical injectables and vaccines, designer multiple emulsions, soft engineered surfaces, and continuous manufacturing.

Select Pre-NIST Publications*

Edwards CER, Lakkis KL, Luo Y, Helgeson ME. Coacervate or precipitate? Formation of non-equilibrium microstructures in coacervate emulsions. Soft Matter. 2023 Nov 3; 19(45): 8849-62.
Chau AL,¹ Edwards CER,¹ Helgeson ME, Pitenis AA. Designing superlubricious hydrogels from spontaneous peroxidation gradients. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 2023 Aug 31; 15(36): 43075-86. ¹Equal contributions.
Luo Y, Gu M, Edwards CER, Valentine MT, Helgeson ME. High-throughput microscopy to determine morphology, microrheology, and phase boundaries applied to phase separating coacervates. Soft Matter. 2022 Mar 30; 18(15): 3063-75.
Shenoy VJ, Edwards CER, Helgeson ME, Valentine MT. Design and characterization of a 3D-printed staggered herringbone mixer. BioTechniques. 2021 May 1; 70(5): 285-9.
Edwards CER,¹ Mai DJ,¹ Tang S, Olsen BD. Molecular anisotropy and rearrangement as mechanisms of toughness and extensibility in entangled physical gels. Physical Review Materials. 2020 Jan 27; 4(1): 015602. ¹Equal contributions.
Born SC,¹ Edwards CER,¹ Martin B, Jensen KF. Continuous, on-demand generation and separation of diphenylphosphoryl azide. Tetrahedron. 2018 Jun 21; 74(25): 3137-42. ¹Equal contributions.
Hassan U, Watkins NN, Edwards C, Bashir R. Flow metering characterization within an electrical cell counting microfluidic device. Lab on a Chip. 2014 Jan 24; 14(8): 1469-76.

* For complete list, see Google Scholar

Awards

NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, NIST (2024-2026)

PEO Scholar Award (2022-2023)

Outstanding TA Award, College of Engineering @ UC Santa Barbara (2022)

CSP Technologies Teacher-Scholar Fellow, Department of Chemical Engineering @ UC Santa Barbara (2021-2022)

Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award, UC Santa Barbara (2021)

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship (2017-2021)

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (declined) (2017)

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (2016-2017)