Susana Teixeira

Updated November 2018

Susana Teixera

Can you tell us a bit about your studies and your scientific field?

I have a Chemical Engineering degree and a PhD in Chemistry for crystallographic studies of biological macromolecules. My general scientific field is Structural Biology and I mainly use neutrons to probe molecules in environments relevant to their native function or activity of interest.

Please describe step by step how you got to your position

1991-1997: Chemical Engineering (Applied Chemistry, IST, University of Lisbon, Portugal); Erasmus and IAESTE trainings in Reading (UK) and Gothenburg (Sweden), respectively.
1997-1999: Research Assistant, Protein Crystallography (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
2000-2003: PhD in Chemistry, Crystallographic studies of biological molecules at the University of Reading (UK); project partly carried out at the University of Washington (Seattle/USA).
2003-2007: Keele University (UK) Postdoc placed at the ILL, Grenoble. Isotope Labelling and Neutron Crystallography. Instrument scientist at DB21 and LADI beamlines.
2007-2015: Joint Lecturer in Biophysics (Keele University, UK) & Instrument Scientist at the ILL (D16, LADI beamlines, ILL, France).
2016-present: University of Delaware Guest Researcher working as an instrument scientist at the SANS group of the NIST (Maryland, USA) Center for Neutron Research.

Have you got publications?

Yes, I have authored research articles as well as science communication and creative writing pieces. Further details can be found on my LinkedIn profile). These are a representative sample:

Review article – Neutron sources and instrumentation for Neutrons in Biology. Teixeira S., Ankner. J., Belissent-Funel M-C. et al. (2008). Chem. Phys. 345, 133-151.
Interview/Profile piece on Giuseppe Zaccai. Teixeira, S. (2012). PSB Newsletter 10, Profile article, page 7;
Research article – Neutron cryo-crystallography captures the protonation state of ferryl heme in a peroxidase. Casadei C., Gumiero A., Metcalfe C., Murphy E., Concillio M., Schrader T., Teixeira S. et al. (2014). Science 345, 6193, 193-197.
Novel – “A Europe é já ali’ (Translation: Europe is right there), Chiado Editora (2016)

What Percentage of your time do you dedicate to your family/ work/ you?

My family is spread around the globe, so in my heart I am with them constantly but in practice it is more like 20/65/15.

Who or what is your mentor or greatest inspiration?

My parents, brother and husband are my greatest inspiration. I have also been fortunate to work with fantastic people but my PhD supervisor, Prof. C. Cardin, stands out as a great mentor and a dear friend.

What is the most challenging thing you have faced in your career?

Managing the work/personal time balance, always a difficult part of being a scientist and even more so when an obsession with writing constantly pulls me into a creative world.

Contact details

susanat@udel.edu or scm5@nist.gov
NIST Centre for Neutron Research
National Institute for Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Bld.235
MS 6102, Gaithersburg MD 20899
T: +1 (301)975-4404

Book “Europe is right there” (A Europa é já ali)

In 2016, Susana Teixeira published a novel entitled “Europe is right there” (A Europa é já ali). Portugal is the European Union country with the highest emigration as a proportion of its population. This timely story travels between the emotional and physical distances faced by portuguese: the ones that stay behind, those who leave and those they meet along the way. For further information (in Portuguese) click here.