Syrago-Styliani (Sissy) Petropoulou
Interview Posted By: Ashley Smith
1. Can you tell us a little about your background? i.e. Where you grew up, what education do you have, a summary of your resume, did you always want to do what you are doing now, when did you start to become interested in STEM, what internships/ volunteering
SP: I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. I received my degree in Chemistry in 1994 from the University of Crete (4 yrs) and conducted my graduate studies in analytical chemistry at the University of Athens, Greece. I completed both an M.S. and Ph.D. In 2006, I had the opportunity to move to the USA as a Research Fellow for the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), based in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. After one year, I was offered a new position at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. I was there for 3.5 yrs until I was offered a job at the California Environmental Protection Agency. I joined the Human and Environmental Monitoring Section and conduct research on Prop 65 chemicals (http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/background/p65plain.html) in relation to human health and assist the Biomonitoring California Initiative that started in California in 2006.
While in NC, I was requested to participate as a science fair judge representing the Federal EPA. I was always interested in showing students and especially girls how far you can go with a science career. One day I was a little girl dreaming of becoming a scientist and the next day I was working as a scientist in a world renowned organization. I feel the need to do my best to inspire other girls to do the same thing. When I came across the STEM I was inspired to become involved and help as much as I can. Where I grew up, there was no STEM initiative in place but I had an inspirational science teacher in middle school that led his students to look for and follow scientific careers. To his honor today 60% of students from my school year are scientists and engineers.
Around that time, I realized I wanted to be a scientist. My friends jokingly said that I would be a chemist. In middle school, I had no idea what the daily life of a chemist entailed, but I knew I understood chemistry very well and I was fascinated by it. When I finished high school I wanted to be a civil engineer or an architect because I thought that a chemist could only become a science teacher. At the end of the day and the way the education system is placed in my country, having the best grade in chemistry, I qualified for the chemistry departments in my country and attended the one in the University of Crete. I always loved chemistry, what is there not to love? It explained everything around me. From the toothpaste I use in the morning to the colors of the sky and the smell of rain. I was always a detailed personality so it has been nothing but pleasure learning about things surrounding me and how to explain them. A lot of my current friends say always: “She is a chemist, she knows these things” and that is a great feeling.
Internships and volunteering were not necessary in my student years till college when you are more familiar to the subject you are studying and what you would like advance your career at. I was an intern in the General Chemical State Laboratory in Athens Greece in the laboratory of Psychotropic Substances & Narcotics. That internship changed my career interest from Biochemistry and Biophysics to Analytical Chemistry and Metrology. I decided to follow graduate studies in Analytical Chemistry at the end of my internship and focus on chemical exposure of humans to chemicals (drugs, narcotics, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals).
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
SP: My job by title is Research Scientist III. I am an analytical chemist. Daily, I am working on developing analytical methods to detect, identify and measure chemical substances in human biological fluids (such as urine, blood, saliva, breast milk, etc.). For example, think of a doctor’s appointment when you are required to provide some blood for analysis to see how your health is doing. During those analyses, there are measurements included (e.g., of iron levels, liver enzyme levels, etc.). The blood is shipped to a specific laboratory where it is treated and analyzed. But who developed the way to be analyzed? How do you inject blood in a machine and get your iron level? Behind the scenes a person like me developed a method. A method that says how much blood is needed to measure iron in humans. That person, created a “recipe” of how much, how to treat the blood for how long and what to look for. A scientist has spent time to figure out the best way to accurately isolate and measure for example, iron from your blood. Think of how many things are in our blood or urine etc, there is a lot of chemistry knowledge required.
Ethics are an important consideration as well. Analytical methods involve a human being, in some cases, a sick person so you want to be as accurate as possible. Recently biomonitoring analytical methods are used to identify chemicals that mothers are exposed to, chemicals that might affect the fertility and the carrying children before they are born in an effort to understand for example neurodevelopmental health issues, cancer, autism and other diseases. In these methods we are required to develop and follow international analytical protocols, you want your method to be the best using as less required material as possible and be the most accurate. If that is succeeded then other laboratories around the world can also use your method and many collaborations can be developed to investigate acquired data, and what they mean, and translated to a human population.
The research part in my job title describes the “unknown”, the exciting finding, the pioneer work required to discover something new. Our daily products include new chemicals that are often released to our environment Many of which; we don’t know how they will affect our health or our future generations of children. New unknown chemicals require research to be identified and be isolated, to be accurately measured them and studied, in order to inform the public.
3. How does STEM relate to your job? How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
SP: When I graduated college I had one requirement from myself that I would practice my discipline. I love chemistry and I would do my best to get a job practicing chemistry. I was also fascinated by human beings and our relationship with chemicals. My internship at the General Chemical State Laboratory was on the tough subject of illegal drugs and psychotropic substances. It showed me how vulnerable we are to chemicals and how addictive and potentially lethal they can be. Investigating chemicals that we are exposed to daily from consumer products that we consider innocent is extremely interesting. Every day I am seeing how little we know about the world we live in. As I say to people when they ask me if I like my job: “I am doing my dream job”.
It is amazing how much knowledge of what I was taught in college I use every day. I can’t isolate a chemical from other chemicals in a blood sample if I don’t understand organic chemistry and its structure, if I don’t use physical properties that it is defined from, if I am not aware of biochemistry and how it is or not metabolized and excreted by a human body. I can’t measure it if I don’t understand math and if I don’t apply analytical chemistry protocols and statistics. Being a research scientist requires that I use daily what I learned in college and in addition, I have to daily read and get more informed about new technologies, new innovative ideas that I might need to incorporate to my techniques. Science is evolving daily and things are not done as they used to be done 100-yrs ago. With the technology improving so much there is a constant need to keep on learning.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
SP: We live in a world that is not perfect. Unfortunately, I did have to live through situations that gender discrimination was involved after I entered the professional world. Fortunately, at the end of the day I knew very well who I was and what I knew. Growing up with two brothers, my parents taught me that I am equal. I think that my background helped me overcome discrimination and challenges. If I was not treated equal or I was put down I took it only as a challenge to be smarter and move on. Unfortunately I saw other friends that did not make it through or did not handle the pressure. I, on the contrary, was always confident on who I am on how much I have worked for what I know. I am confident of my knowledge and of what I have to offer to my work. It also helped that I always had a goal and I never doubted myself on what I am doing in my life. I worked my way to my goals and my dream job, doing my best every day. My advice to a STEM woman/girl is to believe in yourself, have goals and do what you really love. Do not let anyone convince you that you can’t succeed in something if your heart and your mind are on it.. No-one else’s opinion matters but yours, because you live with yourself every day, 24 hrs a day. You know you better than anyone else.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
SP: Like every job it has restrictions and specific requirements especially on time, like for example deadlines of projects etc. It is not that I don’t understand the importance of a project being done on time but many times it creates pressure, anxiety and stress. Developing a new method from scratch is like having a baby, you can’t deliver a baby with short arms just because you are in a hurry, a baby needs full length arms to be a perfect a baby. Similarly methods require time and effort to find and understand and perform the best way and sometimes there is no time. Sometimes you have to walk the fine line of what is acceptable and appropriate for you to move on, than spend a tremendous amount of time and lose the outcome, which is for example to develop a method so late that is not usable any more. That I would say is the worst part in my job, but the best part is all the above I mentioned in the previous paragraph. The feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, the feeling you do something good for the world around you. The feeling that you use all the knowledge you were offered in college and that you still learn and evolve daily and you become wiser and wiser every day.
On a day to day basis I look forward on being able to accomplish my goals for the day. Its easy to lose yourself in too much needed to be done so you need to be focused. I also look forward to interact with my other colleagues, find out new things and discuss new ideas. Working for the state the working environment can be strict. The public has great expectations from those representing them; people like me and my colleagues. I wish we could also work in a fun environment with new offices, fun couches etc. Unfortunately the public will not understand expenses like that so we are limited to older buildings and offices. It would be fun one day to walk in to a new environment like the new startups look like, to be offered things like breakfast or just coffees. Simple stuff like that can uplift the working attitudes and lift up the spirit of people working hard for the public good.
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
SP: This is a great question. Personally it took me long time to figure it out and I am still working on this. The balance is hard because, women, we always have to work a bit harder to prove ourselves. I believe the secret lies in understanding and practicing daily that you have nothing to prove. You are equal to anyone else. That is easier said than done actually. Seems like we expect so much from ourselves and working in a world thinking we always have to prove better then we automatically think deep inside we are less. I would advise any girl starting a STEM career to think forward as that she is equal and has nothing to prove. She is not less and she is not required to do more. She just has to do her best. I would also advise any student in a STEM career path to put themselves first. You cannot provide the best when you are exhausted overworked and tired. Take time, live life at any age and enjoy the things beside your career those things will give you strength to your career as well.
7. What do you define success as?
SP: The definition of success has changed in my head over the years. In the early years of my career, success was to nail the perfect job, the most prestigious job and learn as much as I could. Then it became more about financial wellness, success was to make more and more money. Be able to provide to myself a nice vacation or a great living space. The more I am growing up I am realizing that success is to be happy. To be able to go home and be proud of yourself and of what you do daily. To feel the joy of what you do in other aspects of your life and be proud. To me success is to go to bed at night and have no regrets; only great memories of your day. When you are happy everything else falls in place. Don’t give up your happiness for anything, no one and no job.
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
SP: Respect is the personality trait I believe is important. You need to practice respect in every way. You need to think and stop at some point that everyone around you is trying like you do to do their best and you need to learn to respect that. You need to respect the differences around you either they are personality ones, or organizational ones or gender one. Respect towards others and respect to you is important. Bring your best self in every situation and work towards the best environment that also brings the best out of you.
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
SP: I am lucky enough to say I had three mentors I can identify right away that they played a huge role for my career. My mother played an important role on teaching me to be equal and telling me to believe in myself. Telling me to chase what I want to do and make it a goal to do it. The second mentor in my life was my middle school science teacher that showed me that there is a whole new world there, that I knew nothing about and that girls can do science too. My third mentor was one of my undergraduate studies professor and advisor of my final thesis; that told me that he believes in me and that I could do great things in my life. He made me believe that I can go anywhere I wanted. He also told me that not only I am a good scientist, because I was a good student, but because and I am not afraid to put the work into something to make it happen and that is what really matters. That was something I was practicing for years but never thought before. You need to put work to be successful. It won’t just happen because you are smart or a good student. I guess the outcome is obvious. I am a Research Scientist for a world respected organization that affects people’s lives.
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
SP: Don’t let your happiness in anyone else’s hands. It’s your life and your job will be a huge part of it so make sure you are happy in it. Make sure you do what you love, don’t waste your happiness because someone believes differently than you.
The advice I would give to myself is: Don’t doubt yourself. You know what you want, so just do it. I would have saved some stressful years doubting myself because everyone else was different than me. My advice to you is: Do what makes you happy and if that makes you feel different than others, who cares! Nothing new and exciting comes from following the same paths as others. You need to take that unknown new and exciting path to see where it leads you. If you are different embrace it and things will work out as long as you do what makes you happy.
SP: I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. I received my degree in Chemistry in 1994 from the University of Crete (4 yrs) and conducted my graduate studies in analytical chemistry at the University of Athens, Greece. I completed both an M.S. and Ph.D. In 2006, I had the opportunity to move to the USA as a Research Fellow for the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), based in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. After one year, I was offered a new position at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. I was there for 3.5 yrs until I was offered a job at the California Environmental Protection Agency. I joined the Human and Environmental Monitoring Section and conduct research on Prop 65 chemicals (http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/background/p65plain.html) in relation to human health and assist the Biomonitoring California Initiative that started in California in 2006.
While in NC, I was requested to participate as a science fair judge representing the Federal EPA. I was always interested in showing students and especially girls how far you can go with a science career. One day I was a little girl dreaming of becoming a scientist and the next day I was working as a scientist in a world renowned organization. I feel the need to do my best to inspire other girls to do the same thing. When I came across the STEM I was inspired to become involved and help as much as I can. Where I grew up, there was no STEM initiative in place but I had an inspirational science teacher in middle school that led his students to look for and follow scientific careers. To his honor today 60% of students from my school year are scientists and engineers.
Around that time, I realized I wanted to be a scientist. My friends jokingly said that I would be a chemist. In middle school, I had no idea what the daily life of a chemist entailed, but I knew I understood chemistry very well and I was fascinated by it. When I finished high school I wanted to be a civil engineer or an architect because I thought that a chemist could only become a science teacher. At the end of the day and the way the education system is placed in my country, having the best grade in chemistry, I qualified for the chemistry departments in my country and attended the one in the University of Crete. I always loved chemistry, what is there not to love? It explained everything around me. From the toothpaste I use in the morning to the colors of the sky and the smell of rain. I was always a detailed personality so it has been nothing but pleasure learning about things surrounding me and how to explain them. A lot of my current friends say always: “She is a chemist, she knows these things” and that is a great feeling.
Internships and volunteering were not necessary in my student years till college when you are more familiar to the subject you are studying and what you would like advance your career at. I was an intern in the General Chemical State Laboratory in Athens Greece in the laboratory of Psychotropic Substances & Narcotics. That internship changed my career interest from Biochemistry and Biophysics to Analytical Chemistry and Metrology. I decided to follow graduate studies in Analytical Chemistry at the end of my internship and focus on chemical exposure of humans to chemicals (drugs, narcotics, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals).
2. What exactly IS your job? What do you do on a day to day basis?
SP: My job by title is Research Scientist III. I am an analytical chemist. Daily, I am working on developing analytical methods to detect, identify and measure chemical substances in human biological fluids (such as urine, blood, saliva, breast milk, etc.). For example, think of a doctor’s appointment when you are required to provide some blood for analysis to see how your health is doing. During those analyses, there are measurements included (e.g., of iron levels, liver enzyme levels, etc.). The blood is shipped to a specific laboratory where it is treated and analyzed. But who developed the way to be analyzed? How do you inject blood in a machine and get your iron level? Behind the scenes a person like me developed a method. A method that says how much blood is needed to measure iron in humans. That person, created a “recipe” of how much, how to treat the blood for how long and what to look for. A scientist has spent time to figure out the best way to accurately isolate and measure for example, iron from your blood. Think of how many things are in our blood or urine etc, there is a lot of chemistry knowledge required.
Ethics are an important consideration as well. Analytical methods involve a human being, in some cases, a sick person so you want to be as accurate as possible. Recently biomonitoring analytical methods are used to identify chemicals that mothers are exposed to, chemicals that might affect the fertility and the carrying children before they are born in an effort to understand for example neurodevelopmental health issues, cancer, autism and other diseases. In these methods we are required to develop and follow international analytical protocols, you want your method to be the best using as less required material as possible and be the most accurate. If that is succeeded then other laboratories around the world can also use your method and many collaborations can be developed to investigate acquired data, and what they mean, and translated to a human population.
The research part in my job title describes the “unknown”, the exciting finding, the pioneer work required to discover something new. Our daily products include new chemicals that are often released to our environment Many of which; we don’t know how they will affect our health or our future generations of children. New unknown chemicals require research to be identified and be isolated, to be accurately measured them and studied, in order to inform the public.
3. How does STEM relate to your job? How do you use the information you learned from your degree in your job?
SP: When I graduated college I had one requirement from myself that I would practice my discipline. I love chemistry and I would do my best to get a job practicing chemistry. I was also fascinated by human beings and our relationship with chemicals. My internship at the General Chemical State Laboratory was on the tough subject of illegal drugs and psychotropic substances. It showed me how vulnerable we are to chemicals and how addictive and potentially lethal they can be. Investigating chemicals that we are exposed to daily from consumer products that we consider innocent is extremely interesting. Every day I am seeing how little we know about the world we live in. As I say to people when they ask me if I like my job: “I am doing my dream job”.
It is amazing how much knowledge of what I was taught in college I use every day. I can’t isolate a chemical from other chemicals in a blood sample if I don’t understand organic chemistry and its structure, if I don’t use physical properties that it is defined from, if I am not aware of biochemistry and how it is or not metabolized and excreted by a human body. I can’t measure it if I don’t understand math and if I don’t apply analytical chemistry protocols and statistics. Being a research scientist requires that I use daily what I learned in college and in addition, I have to daily read and get more informed about new technologies, new innovative ideas that I might need to incorporate to my techniques. Science is evolving daily and things are not done as they used to be done 100-yrs ago. With the technology improving so much there is a constant need to keep on learning.
4. Have you faced any discrimination/ challenges being a woman in a stem field? If so, how did you deal with it? Do you have any advice for up and coming women in STEM?
SP: We live in a world that is not perfect. Unfortunately, I did have to live through situations that gender discrimination was involved after I entered the professional world. Fortunately, at the end of the day I knew very well who I was and what I knew. Growing up with two brothers, my parents taught me that I am equal. I think that my background helped me overcome discrimination and challenges. If I was not treated equal or I was put down I took it only as a challenge to be smarter and move on. Unfortunately I saw other friends that did not make it through or did not handle the pressure. I, on the contrary, was always confident on who I am on how much I have worked for what I know. I am confident of my knowledge and of what I have to offer to my work. It also helped that I always had a goal and I never doubted myself on what I am doing in my life. I worked my way to my goals and my dream job, doing my best every day. My advice to a STEM woman/girl is to believe in yourself, have goals and do what you really love. Do not let anyone convince you that you can’t succeed in something if your heart and your mind are on it.. No-one else’s opinion matters but yours, because you live with yourself every day, 24 hrs a day. You know you better than anyone else.
5. What is the best and worst part of your job? What do you look forward to in your job on a day to day basis? What do you wish you could change?
SP: Like every job it has restrictions and specific requirements especially on time, like for example deadlines of projects etc. It is not that I don’t understand the importance of a project being done on time but many times it creates pressure, anxiety and stress. Developing a new method from scratch is like having a baby, you can’t deliver a baby with short arms just because you are in a hurry, a baby needs full length arms to be a perfect a baby. Similarly methods require time and effort to find and understand and perform the best way and sometimes there is no time. Sometimes you have to walk the fine line of what is acceptable and appropriate for you to move on, than spend a tremendous amount of time and lose the outcome, which is for example to develop a method so late that is not usable any more. That I would say is the worst part in my job, but the best part is all the above I mentioned in the previous paragraph. The feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, the feeling you do something good for the world around you. The feeling that you use all the knowledge you were offered in college and that you still learn and evolve daily and you become wiser and wiser every day.
On a day to day basis I look forward on being able to accomplish my goals for the day. Its easy to lose yourself in too much needed to be done so you need to be focused. I also look forward to interact with my other colleagues, find out new things and discuss new ideas. Working for the state the working environment can be strict. The public has great expectations from those representing them; people like me and my colleagues. I wish we could also work in a fun environment with new offices, fun couches etc. Unfortunately the public will not understand expenses like that so we are limited to older buildings and offices. It would be fun one day to walk in to a new environment like the new startups look like, to be offered things like breakfast or just coffees. Simple stuff like that can uplift the working attitudes and lift up the spirit of people working hard for the public good.
6. How do you balance your work and personal life? Any secrets or advice you’d like to share?
SP: This is a great question. Personally it took me long time to figure it out and I am still working on this. The balance is hard because, women, we always have to work a bit harder to prove ourselves. I believe the secret lies in understanding and practicing daily that you have nothing to prove. You are equal to anyone else. That is easier said than done actually. Seems like we expect so much from ourselves and working in a world thinking we always have to prove better then we automatically think deep inside we are less. I would advise any girl starting a STEM career to think forward as that she is equal and has nothing to prove. She is not less and she is not required to do more. She just has to do her best. I would also advise any student in a STEM career path to put themselves first. You cannot provide the best when you are exhausted overworked and tired. Take time, live life at any age and enjoy the things beside your career those things will give you strength to your career as well.
7. What do you define success as?
SP: The definition of success has changed in my head over the years. In the early years of my career, success was to nail the perfect job, the most prestigious job and learn as much as I could. Then it became more about financial wellness, success was to make more and more money. Be able to provide to myself a nice vacation or a great living space. The more I am growing up I am realizing that success is to be happy. To be able to go home and be proud of yourself and of what you do daily. To feel the joy of what you do in other aspects of your life and be proud. To me success is to go to bed at night and have no regrets; only great memories of your day. When you are happy everything else falls in place. Don’t give up your happiness for anything, no one and no job.
8. What is one personality trait that you think is universally important for a successful career?
SP: Respect is the personality trait I believe is important. You need to practice respect in every way. You need to think and stop at some point that everyone around you is trying like you do to do their best and you need to learn to respect that. You need to respect the differences around you either they are personality ones, or organizational ones or gender one. Respect towards others and respect to you is important. Bring your best self in every situation and work towards the best environment that also brings the best out of you.
9. Who was a mentor to you throughout your career? (can be more than one!) What did they teach you? How did they impact your life?
SP: I am lucky enough to say I had three mentors I can identify right away that they played a huge role for my career. My mother played an important role on teaching me to be equal and telling me to believe in myself. Telling me to chase what I want to do and make it a goal to do it. The second mentor in my life was my middle school science teacher that showed me that there is a whole new world there, that I knew nothing about and that girls can do science too. My third mentor was one of my undergraduate studies professor and advisor of my final thesis; that told me that he believes in me and that I could do great things in my life. He made me believe that I can go anywhere I wanted. He also told me that not only I am a good scientist, because I was a good student, but because and I am not afraid to put the work into something to make it happen and that is what really matters. That was something I was practicing for years but never thought before. You need to put work to be successful. It won’t just happen because you are smart or a good student. I guess the outcome is obvious. I am a Research Scientist for a world respected organization that affects people’s lives.
10. What do you think is the best advice you've ever received? What advice would you give your younger self if you had the chance? What’s one piece of advice you can pass on to us?
SP: Don’t let your happiness in anyone else’s hands. It’s your life and your job will be a huge part of it so make sure you are happy in it. Make sure you do what you love, don’t waste your happiness because someone believes differently than you.
The advice I would give to myself is: Don’t doubt yourself. You know what you want, so just do it. I would have saved some stressful years doubting myself because everyone else was different than me. My advice to you is: Do what makes you happy and if that makes you feel different than others, who cares! Nothing new and exciting comes from following the same paths as others. You need to take that unknown new and exciting path to see where it leads you. If you are different embrace it and things will work out as long as you do what makes you happy.