Research Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Old Dominion University

Physical Sciences Bldg II, Room 1104 (COSMIC Laboratory), 4402 Elkhorn Ave,  Norfolk, VA, 23529. 

Office: 3000E Chemistry and Biochemistry Bldg., 4501 Elkhorn Avenue, Norfolk, VA, 23529.

E-mail: spagola@odu.edu 
TEL: (757)-254-7165 

ORCID iD iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2083-7599

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Crystal engineering and Mechanochemistry.
  • Kinetics and mechanisms of mechanochemical reactions. In situ and ex situ kinetics monitoring by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction.
  • Synthesis and solid-state characterization of organic ferroelectric cocrystals. 
  • Synthesis and study of the properties of pharmaceutical drug-drug cocrystals and salts.
  • Direct-space methods for crystal structure determination from X-ray powder diffraction. Rietveld analysis. Single crystal X-ray diffraction.

Biographical Sketch

I was born and raised in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. I earned a Licentiate in Chemistry degree in 1992 with coursework oriented to Physical Chemistry, at the National University of Córdoba. In 1997, I defended my doctoral thesis in Solid-State Chemistry at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical Sciences, National University of Córdoba. I synthesized ternary transition metal oxides and studied their properties using various techniques, such as X-ray powder diffraction, neutron powder diffraction, Rietveld analysis, Raman spectroscopy, FT-IR reflectivity, and electrical resistivity measurements as a function of the temperature. After my doctoral thesis, I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (1998-2000) at the SUNY X3B1 X-ray powder diffraction beamline at the NSLS-I, Brookhaven National Laboratory-SUNY at Stony Brook, Department of Physics and Astronomy, wherein I learned about direct-space methods to solve crystal structures from X-ray powder diffraction data, by then a rather new field. I returned to Córdoba for around two years as a researcher and teacher, later I worked at the pharmaceutical company Apotex Inc (Toronto, Canada) as a specialist in X-ray powder diffraction, and in 2007 I returned to the USA as a postdoctoral researcher in the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA. I stayed there as a Research Scientist II in the Department of Applied Science, while I initiated research work in mechanochemistry for the synthesis of charge transfer complexes of tetrathiafulvalene and their solid-state characterization, in addition to crystal structure determination from powders. Since 2018, I am a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Old Dominion University. My current research work with undergraduate and graduate students focuses on: (1) The investigation of the kinetics of mechanochemical reactions with the objective of determining their activation energies, using in situ Raman spectroscopy (funded by NSF); (2) the synthesis of organic ferroelectrics and their solid-state characterization, including X-ray single crystal diffraction; (3) the synthesis of pharmaceutical drug-drug combinations for pharmaceutical drug repurposing. For specific details see individual research project outlines here. I am also the Chair of the Organic and Pharmaceutical subcommittee, International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD), since 2024.