During 2018, she acted as Vice President for the former Asia-Pacific Program at EWI. From 2016-2017, she served as the director of the China and Global Security Program at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), contributing to programming on China-Russia-U.S. relations and deterrence in cyberspace, Chinese views on the Ukraine crisis, China’s approach towards sanctions and North Korea’s nuclear program, Japan-Europe-U.S. cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, the impact of Chinese and Russian hypersonic glide on nuclear deterrence, as well as Central Asian, South Asian and Southeast Asian responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

From 2013-2016, Dr. Saalman worked as an associate professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, where she covered cybersecurity issues and underwent training at the SANS Institute on hacker tools, exploits and incident handling, as well as ICS/SCADA security essentials. She offered lectures and created tabletop exercises on Asia-Pacific cyber trends, cyber crisis management, cyber terrorism, cross-domain deterrence, as well as cases of cyber intrusion and attack on nuclear facilities, industry and government.

From 2010-2013, she was an associate in the Nuclear Policy Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and based at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, China. Dr. Saalman headed seminar series for senior and emerging experts on China and Arms Control, China and South Asia, as well as China and Russia. She also served as an adjunct professor at Tsinghua University teaching courses in Chinese and English on Sino-Indian relations and regional diplomacy.

From 2003-2006, Dr. Saalman worked as a research associate at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in Washington, D.C., as well as a visiting fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) in Washington, D.C. While at CNS, she earned a one-year fellowship to work at the Division of Safeguards Information Technology at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Dr. Saalman maintains an adjunct affiliation as an associate senior fellow at SIPRI, where she contributes to projects on the impact of machine learning and autonomy on nuclear risk and nuclear challenges in South Asia. 

Dr. Saalman earned her bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Chicago, her master’s degree with a certificate in nonproliferation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and her Ph.D. at Tsinghua University in Beijing, where she was the first American to earn a doctorate from its Department of International Relations, completing all her coursework in Chinese.