Category: Natural Disasters

Source: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Effie Kisgeropoulos Discusses Her Early Scientific Inspiration and Journey to Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Lying on the grass in Canton, Ohio, a young Effie Kisgeropoulos studied constellations with her eyes and later through her telescope, dreaming about the mechanisms of faraway celestial bodies.

Little did the future National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researcher know that her budding scientific gaze would later turn to something closer to home: orbiting subatomic particles in microscopic structures.

The ability to translate perspectives between different worlds might be her superpower—although this superpower has come with its challenges. Yet Kisgeropoulos has persisted through all the uphill climbs, maintaining her joy of learning.

Kisgeropoulos was homeschooled for most of her childhood, and she benefited from a framework that empowered her to absorb knowledge and ask questions. Looking back, the ease with which Kisgeropoulos moved through primary education was perhaps unsurprising given her much later diagnosis with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She thrived in the home setting where learning was fun, engaging, and flexible. But when it was time to begin her university honors program, Kisgeropoulos’ success at home became a struggle to maintain. Her passion for exploring new ideas came under serious doubt.

Although Kisgeropoulos struggled at first, she persevered through trial and error and by embracing new opportunities. Her path at NREL began with a postdoctoral position that employed her passion for using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to decipher the subatomic interactions that dictate our world.

Kisgeropoulos is now a full-time researcher in NREL’s Biosciences Center, responsible for helping manage the Advanced Spin Resonance Facility (ASRF), which houses the EPR equipment. This facility helps illuminate the subatomic workings of chemical reactions, like those that sustain photosynthesis or enable light-driven ammonia production and hydrogen catalysis.

In this interview (edited for length and clarity), Kisgeropoulos discusses her contagious enthusiasm for science, her unique journey to NREL, and her passion for all things EPR.

You have an interesting upbringing that isn’t familiar to many people. Can you talk about that and how it was a factor in your embrace of science?

My mom homeschooled my sister and I until mid-high school. During our elementary years, she taught us for two days and worked the other three, when my dad—who worked midnights—would help.  

Around this time, I fell in love with astronomy and spent countless hours poring over star maps and gazing at constellations. I even got a small telescope! It kick-started my obsession with science fiction and, later, theoretical physics.

Homeschooling allowed me a certain freedom in how I assimilated information. I could work on my lessons while barefoot and sitting cross-legged on the floor, make as much noise as I wanted, go at my own pace. I was unencumbered by the classical rules of school.

Later when my parents separated, my mom juggled multiple jobs while still maintaining our education. Watching all this, I also learned a lot about hard work and perseverance. I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until 29, so these qualities—and the love of learning I grew up with—were vital to me navigating undergrad and then a Ph.D. without any context for why I had different needs than my peers.

Can you tell me about your transition from homeschooling to the university world?

My science obsessions led me to join the honors program at Kent State University with a plan outlined by my guidance counselor: a bachelor’s in physics; grad school for astrophysics. Once classes started, a harsh reality formed. Many students are challenged during the transition to college, but I wasn’t aware of the unique challenges that came with a neurodivergent brain.

Tougher coursework meant I had to study in earnest, but sitting alone for hours in the library to accomplish this was a strange experience. It would take me significant time to clear my mind of distractions before I could fully immerse myself in a task. Although I had experience with self-directed learning, my skills began failing me in this demanding and unfamiliar college environment.

It was a disheartening first couple of years. I had been excellent at math, but I did poorly in calculus. I did okay in Physics I, but I dropped Physics II twice because it wasn’t clicking. The irony is the stuff in Physics II—like circuits, electricity, and magnetism—are foundations to some of what I do now at NREL.

So, how did you adjust?

The end of sophomore year was my worst. I wanted to study the stars, but I just couldn’t make the connections in my coursework. At around the same time, we found out my mom had breast cancer. It really impelled me, and I switched majors to biotech. I thought a more industry-focused degree would help with getting a job, if I needed to take care of my sister, and I hoped it would lead me to work in cancer research to help patients like my mom.

With the switch, I started to excel in my classes again. In Intro Biochem, I learned about enzyme pathways in cells. It was like a puzzle, mapping them all out. In some ways, it felt like mapping out the stars. I was becoming fascinated with microscopic biological and chemical mechanisms that I had no idea about. My fire for learning came back. And as I approached graduation, my mom cleared her cancer!

That’s wonderful. So at that point, you were on the path to a Ph.D. in biochem at The Ohio State University (OSU)?

Yeah. I was thrilled when I was offered a spot. I started with three different lab rotations: mouse models of cancer, yeast genetics, and spectroscopy. Although I was still invested in cancer research, I enjoyed the approach of spectroscopy the most, which was in the lab of a new OSU professor, Hannah Shafaat. And in the end, I was still awarded a fellowship for the connection of my work to cancer research!

My work at OSU involved applying advanced pulse EPR spectroscopy to biological systems. Before even developing these experiments, we needed to characterize the systems using a more common type of EPR: continuous wave (CW). At the time, the EPR capabilities we needed weren’t available at OSU. Instead, we would drive four hours roundtrip to Miami University and collect data for 10, 12 hours.

This was where I became mesmerized by the EPR process. There’s this giant magnet with a sample in the middle that’s cooled to 5 Kelvin, and then microwaves are shot at it. It’s so metal! The resulting data were beautiful. You’re investigating a signal that looks like a child’s drawing and translating it to give information on interactions happening at the electron level.

So, when were you able to work primarily with pulsed EPR?

During my fourth year, we shifted to pulsed EPR techniques, which use microwaves shot in pulses rather than continuously. Using pulses unlocks a whole new dimension of capabilities, especially manipulating electron spins to acquire different, higher-resolution information. But pulsed EPR demands a higher level of theory and understanding to run an experiment, let alone troubleshoot one or customize it to the sample.

I was applying pulsed EPR to proteins to answer questions about their electronic structure and function. This work was like what I do here at NREL in Paul King’s (Physical Biochemistry and Photosynthesis) group, except now I investigate how this reactivity is controlled and tuned into very complex redox enzymes.

Good segue to becoming a postdoc at NREL. I imagine your experience with pulsed EPR had a lot to do with you coming here?

Honestly, I struggled with the motivation to do research or become a professor. When I started EPR, my research interest sparked a bit, but I wasn’t sure how to do EPR at a private company. And then my OSU lab partner, Tasha Manesis, sent me a link for an NREL postdoctoral position in the Physical Biochemistry and Photosynthesis group. I read the job description and was ecstatic they wanted someone to study redox enzymes using pulsed EPR!

Another bit of serendipity. How was the postdoc experience here at NREL?

Right after they hired me, COVID-19 happened. COVID-19 protocols made lab interactions challenging and training and team-building difficult. Once the protocols loosened, this all improved, and we added some new postdocs that quickly became great friends of mine. My relationship with Paul, my group manager and principal investigator, also really began to develop. These working relationships, and the willingness everyone showed to put effort into making them better, were a large reason why I stayed at NREL.

How was the transition from postdoc to full-time researcher?

Getting an NREL staff position doing what I love felt validating, a recognition of my contributions to the team. It also really brought me a sense of permanence. Even though six years in graduate school was a long time, it always had an end date. With this transition, I experienced a sense of investment in my work that I never felt before.

What are your responsibilities as a biological EPR spectroscopist?

I continue to build upon my postdoc work, contributing to research projects under Paul on photosynthetic energy transduction and mechanisms of photochemical nitrogen reduction. Both are funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences program.

I also took on safety-representative duties for our lab space and have an official role helping David Mulder manage and operate the ASRF, which houses the EPR equipment. David and I developed an approach for scheduling on the CW EPR, helping maintain access for all users amid high demand for instrument time. I also help train new EPR users and advise on project data collection, interpretation, and analysis.

So, why does this new role and the Advanced Spin Resonance Facility at NREL excite you so much?

Most institutions operate one CW EPR at a single microwave frequency (commonly X-band). But at NREL, we have an incredible breadth of EPR capabilities in one place: CW EPR, pulsed EPR, both X-band and Q-band microwave frequencies, equipment to produce shaped pulses, the ability to incorporate radio waves and do EPR-detected nuclear magnetic resonance, and all using helium gas in a cryogen-free system to obtain super cold temperatures. All these capabilities are the perfect playground for me to explore and grow with.

There’s also a tremendous amount of expertise here applying EPR to understand highly complex enzymatic functions, like nitrogen fixation to ammonia or hydrogen generation from protons and electrons. There’s a great foundation to build from and use my understanding of pulsed EPR to advance the research.

Pulsed EPR, and really EPR in general, is such a powerful tool for obtaining targeted information on the movement, properties, and local environments of electrons, whether they exist as radicals, in defects, or on metal clusters. It’s highly applicable across a large swathe of research disciplines, from biology to materials—even brewing beer, although that’s not really in the NREL mission space. I’d like to continue to improve the experience of our core user group and expand the reach of the ASRF across NREL.

Okay, one last question. If you had the power to make one change in the world, what would it be?

Oh, tough, it’s hard to articulate, but I’d make empathy and compassion abundant. Through all my challenges, I’ve come out of it with a different appreciation for people. We’re all flawed, but people are also surprisingly great. I think it’s important to listen to what others are saying and consider how they might be feeling, the milieu that could be contributing to the actions they take.

I try to always remember this, and I would want to make the changes necessary so everyone could feel safe enough and empowered to extend this kind of empathy and compassion to each other. I think it would help the world a lot.

Learn more about NREL’s bioscience research and the Advanced Spin Resonance Facility.

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