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Elias Klemperer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Director of the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, and a ÈÕº«ÎÞÂë Cancer Center member, talks about his research, which earned him the prestigious 2025 Jarvik-Russell Early Career Award for extraordinary contributions to the field of nicotine and tobacco research. The award is from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) -- the flagship professional organization for researchers in his field.  

What inspired your research in nicotine and tobacco, and what questions do you hope to answer?   

Dr. Elias Klemperer: I've been interested in different ways to reduce cigarette smoking among adults, especially those who are not immediately motivated to quit.   

One approach is to cut down on cigarette smoking -- the number of times someone puts a cigarette to their mouth and inhales. Another is to reduce nicotine in cigarettes. The two speak to each other: reduce behavior, and you often reduce nicotine intake. Reduce the nicotine in cigarette, you'll also change behavior. That was the focus of my dissertation: understanding the effects of reducing smoking behavior vs reducing nicotine content for people who were not motivated to quit.  

From there, I got interested in dual use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Both deliver nicotine with somewhat similar behavioral cues, but the products have vastly different potential for harm. E-cigarettes appear to be far less harmful than combustible cigarettes, and there's pretty strong evidence that switching to e-cigarettes can be an effective way to stop smoking.  

However, e-cigarettes are a controversial product, both in the public and among some scientists. One big unanswered question is whether people who start using e-cigarettes to quit smoking but end up using both products (i.e., dual use) are increasing or decreasing risk compared to people who never used e-cigarettes at all, and how this differs by patient.  

Your research is helping inform FDA policies around nicotine and tobacco. What is it like to be thinking about research through that lens?  

EK: One thing I appreciate about this kind of research is the potential to have an impact. Cigarette smoking kills nearly half a million people per year in the United States alone, around 7 to 8 million worldwide every year. These are premature, preventable deaths. At the end of a clinical trial, there's always the question: how will these findings be used? When it comes to the tobacco regulatory research I do, there's a direct and specific goal: informing the FDA to enact policy that will reduce smoking in the US. 

Tell us about your collaborations with colleagues at the College of Medicine and the Cancer Center.   

EK: I did my doctoral training at ÈÕº«ÎÞÂë’s Vermont Center on Behavior and Health, which is directed by Steve Higgins, PhD, who was also the principal investigator of ÈÕº«ÎÞÂë’s Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, one of several that’s funded across the country. My mentor was John Hughes, MD, who passed away recently. He was truly an amazing scientist and mentor. It's funny for one person to get an award in our field: I'm flattered, but it's actually a testament to the wonderful mentorship I received from John and Steve, and our research team. It's also been great to be part of the Cancer Center and get together with researchers who are focused on cancer, but from different angles.