June 30, 2025

Dear Members of Our Campus Community,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Edward Noble Kramer Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, Materials, and Biochemistry & Chemistry Rachel Segalman as our next Vice Chancellor for Research, effective July 1, 2025.

We are grateful to our search advisory committee, co-chaired by Professors Tresa Pollock and Claudio Campagnari, for conducting a rigorous search for this important position. The members of the search advisory committee are listed below. We would also like to thank our Executive Vice Chancellor, Academic Senate Chair, vice chancellors, deans, faculty and staff colleagues, students, and many members of our campus community who participated in and provided important consultation, input, and advice throughout the search process.

After receiving her Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Segalman spent ten years at UC Berkeley as a professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and as a faculty staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. She then spent a year as the Interim Director of the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories before returning to our campus in 2014 as a professor in our Chemical Engineering department. A highly regarded engineer and scientist, Dr. Segalman is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the E.O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Dillon Medal from the American Physical Society, and the Acrivos Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Segalman has held leadership positions in numerous organizations, including the Dreyfus Foundation, Materials Research Society, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the U.S. Department of Energy and National Laboratory system. 

In addition to her experience leading complex and collaborative research centers, Dr. Segalman maintains an academic research group of students and postdoctoral researchers. She served as chair of our Department of Chemical Engineering for eight years, spearheading major initiatives and research centers, including the Center for Materials for Water and Energy Systems (M-WET) and BioPACIFIC. 

Dr. Segalman is a member of the National Academies Committee on International Security and Arms Control, and has served on the Board of Governors’ Science and Technology committees for Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories. She serves on a number of international and national committees and advisory boards, as well as leading and participating on numerous campus and systemwide committees.

I would like to once again express my deepest appreciation to Yzurdiaga Chair Professor Joe Incandela for his extraordinary leadership, vision, and service to our university during his eight years as our vice chancellor. We appreciate his exceptional contributions and his continuing contributions as our faculty colleague. 

I would also like to share my warm appreciation to our Interim Vice Chancellor for Research Scott Grafton for his dedicated leadership during the interim period. Please join me in sharing our sincere thanks with Scott, and extending our warmest congratulations to Rachel as she takes on this important new leadership role.

Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor

Search Advisory Committee for Vice Chancellor for Research

Claudio Campagnari, Co-Chair; Professor, Physics
Tresa Pollock, Co-Chair; ALCOA Distinguished Professor, Materials
Brad Chmelka, Professor, Chemical Engineering; Co-Director, Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB)
Sabine Frühstück, Distinguished Professor, East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies and Koichi Takashima Chair in Japanese Cultural Studies
Ben Halpern, Professor, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management; Director, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
Craig Hawker, Distinguished Professor, Materials; Co-Director, California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
Stephanie Hom, Professor and Vice Chair, French and Italian; Chair, Academic Senate Council on Research and Instructional Resources
Shane Jimerson, Professor, Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology; Director, Academic Program Development
Clifford Johnson, Professor, Physics
Jean Jones, Staff representative; Assistant Vice Chancellor, Office of Research
Fabian Offert, Assistant Professor of History & Theory of Digital Humanities & Artificial Intelligence, Germanic and Slavic Studies
John Park, Professor, Asian American Studies; Director, UCSB Migration Initiative, Broom Center for Demography
Javier Read de Alaniz, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry; Director, NSF BioPACIFIC MIP
Susannah Scott, Distinguished Professor, Chemical Engineering; Mellichamp Academic Initiative in Sustainability Chair
Rebecca Vega Thurber, Professor, Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology; Director, Marine Science Institute
Joe Walther, Distinguished Professor, Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society, Communication
Associated Students representative
Graduate Student representative