Chelsea Edwards (Fed)

Dr. Edwards is an NRC Postdoctoral Fellow and soft materials engineering researcher in the Macromolecular & Microstructural Science Team at the NIST Center for Neutron Research.  She studies micro/nano-scale structure and structural evolution in charged polymer, emulsion, protein, and hydrogel systems, and investigates how processing and formulation conditions can modulate structure and improve performance.  She chiefly employs a variety of small-angle neutron and x-ray scattering, microfluidic, microscopy, mechanical, and automated measurements.  Applications include pharmaceutical injectables, designer multiple emulsions, soft engineered surfaces, and continuous manufacturing.

Select Publications from PhD and other pre-NIST work (See Google Scholar for complete list) : 

• C.E.R. Edwards, H. Zhang, G. Wang, M.E. Helgeson. "Spontaneous Formation of Core-Shell Microdroplets during Conventional Coacervate Phase Separation" Link. Langmuir. 2025; 41(13): 8510-8523.
• C.E.R. Edwards, K.L. Lakkis, Y. Luo, M.E. Helgeson. "Coacervate or Precipitate? Formation of Non-Equilibrium Microstructures in Coacervate Emulsions" Link. Soft Matter. 2023; 19(45): 8849-62.
• A.L. Chau¹,  C.E.R. Edwards¹, M.E. Helgeson, A.A. Pitenis. "Designing Superlubricious Hydrogels from Spontaneous Peroxidation Gradients" Link. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 2023; 15(36): 43075-86.
• C.E.R. Edwards¹,  D.J. Mai¹,  S. Tang, B.D. Olsen. "Molecular Anisotropy and Rearrangement as Mechanisms of Toughness and Extensibility in Entangled Physical Gels" Link. Physical Review Materials. 2020; 4(1): 015602.
• S.C. Born¹,  C.E.R. Edwards¹, B. Martin, K.F. Jensen. "Continuous, On-Demand Generation and Separation of Diphenylphosphoryl Azide" Link. Tetrahedron.  2018; 74(25): 3137-42.

¹ = Equal contributions.

Postdoctorate

2024-2026      NRC RAP Postdoctoral Fellowship, NASEM (~$175,000)

Graduate

2022-2023      PEO International Scholar Award ($20,000)

2022                 Outstanding TA Award, UCSB College of Engineering

2021                 Fiona and Michael Goodchild Graduate Mentoring Award, UCSB Graduate Division

2017-2021      National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, AFOSR ($153,600)

2017                  NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, NSF (declined)

Undergraduate

2016-2017       Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship ($7,500)