Serina Robinson was recently selected by the American Chemical Society as one of 18 global Rising Stars in Environmental Research. Robinson is only five years out from finishing a Ph.D. and has already earned major accolades. In 2021, as the youngest of 10 applicants, Robinson secured a tenure-track position at the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), a research institute in the ETH domain in the greater Zurich area. Her academic journey began at St. Olaf, where she double-majored in chemistry and Norwegian, and earned a two-year fellowship from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study ecotoxicology in Lake Superior. After graduating, she completed a Fulbright scholarship at UiT, the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, focusing on temperature adaptation in Arctic bacteria that use methane as their main energy source.
Robinson then returned to Minnesota to pursue a Ph.D. in microbiology and an M.S. in bioinformatics at the University of Minnesota. Her primary research was conducted in Larry Wackett’s lab, where she worked on identifying enzymes for remediating man-made toxins. Near the end of her graduate studies, she received funding from the National Science Foundation to work as a visiting researcher at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. Later, she was welcomed as a postdoctoral research fellow at ETH Zürich, a public university in Switzerland.
As a tenure-track faculty member at EAWAG, Robinson is learning her third language, German, to teach courses, conduct internationally-recognized research, and engage with the public on environmental policy and advocacy. Her lab studies specialized proteins and examines how these proteins might provide useful applications for remediating polluted aquatic environments.
Tell me about your background. What got you into science?
I’m from South Dakota, born and raised. I think I was always interested in science. My dad runs a small business selling heating and cooling technologies. When I was a kid, he would take me to work with him sometimes. He has a scientific process of solving what was wrong with boilers and burners. I definitely learned analytical thinking from him. Actually, now he also services autoclaves, and we connect over this because I use an autoclave every day.
I had a chemistry teacher in high school who was so inspirational on multiple levels. It was in his class that I thought, “I want to pursue this.” When I started working in research labs as an undergraduate I found that I really love when there's a biological component in addition to chemistry, like when something is evolving or adapting. It makes things way more unpredictable and exciting.
What got you interested in addressing environmental problems in aquatic systems, specifically?
One of the first research labs I was in was a Caulobacter crescentus lab. These bacteria are found in drinking water. From the beginning, I was looking at their preferences for different heavy metals and drinking water. Later, I did an internship at the EPA in Duluth, where they do ecotoxicology research. I loved adding microbes to the equation, because they're so adaptable and versatile. They can be used to offset some of these problems that we're generating. Larry Wackett has really exemplified how you can use microbes and their enzymes in different formulations for water treatment.
How has your research changed over the years and how has living abroad changed how you work?
I’ve always enjoyed studying enzymes (specialized proteins produced by microorganisms that carry out essential functions in a cell), especially understanding what “preferences” an enzyme might have for certain chemicals. In Larry’s lab, I contributed to lots of experiments on different enzymes. I actually ended up doing a short postdoc with Larry on microbes that can degrade per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemicals, also known as forever chemicals, and that’s a topic I continue to study both with Larry and with colleagues here at EAWAG. But now we also look at other pharmaceuticals, and things like pesticides and biocides. I think it helps to see the broader perspective on how research can be done, and how it’s different depending on the country.
What inspires you to keep doing your research?
The environmental crisis is a huge motivation. My goal has always been to try to offset environmental pollution, and understand the microbiology that has the potential to do it. There's still so much that we don’t know. There’s a lot of problem solving involved. Even with all our fancy techniques, there’s so much jumbled data out there. It’s part of our job is to make sense of that and find a clearer path forward. But also, what really gets me out of bed in the mornings is the people. Working with a team that comes together to work on this issue is really great. It’s all about baby steps. — Adara Taylor