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Peer inside Dr. Constantinos Kyriakis and Dr. Maria Naskou’s kitchen and you’re bound to find one of them cooking. If Naskou is at the stove, she’s likely making classic Greek comfort food. If Kyriakis is choosing the menu, expect contemporary cuisine.
These diverse meals reflect their personal journey — from meeting in Greece 14 years ago to currently raising a family in Auburn, Alabama.
The couple has four advanced degrees, three children and a shared goal to uncover knowledge in their separate research laboratories within Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where Kyriakis is an associate professor and Naskou is an assistant professor.
But if someone had told Naskou years ago she would be where she is today, she wouldn’t have believed them.
“I would have thought, ‘There’s no way,’” she said. “I come from a small town in Greece. I had never traveled outside of the country before my veterinary studies and meeting my husband.”
Constantinos Kyriakis and Maria Naskou took this picture in 2015 during their honeymoon in Mykonos, Greece.
The couple met in 2011 in Karditsa, Greece. Naskou was immediately drawn to Kyriakis’ encyclopedic knowledge and dynamic personality. He was equally struck by Naskou.
“She seemed like a very smart and interesting person,” Kyriakis said. “I had finished my doctorate, and Maria was in veterinary school, so we had many common things to discuss.”
The two started dating and were long distance for about a year-and-a-half when Kyriakis took a postdoctoral position at Emory University in Atlanta in 2013. Eventually, Naskou moved to the United States to join him, and they were married in 2015.
Naskou may have followed Kyriakis, but she simultaneously held closely to her goal of getting her doctorate — and so did her husband.
“From the beginning, he was very supportive of me as a person and the goals I wanted to achieve,” she said. “He had his personal priorities, but he put my goals as part of his priorities.”
When Naskou met with a potential doctoral advisor and wasn’t confident in her grasp of English, Kyriakis helped translate at the meeting. The mentor ended up being a great fit, and it didn’t take Naskou long to become a standout student at the University of Georgia.
Meanwhile, Kyriakis’ career flourished as he carved out his expertise in influenza and landed a faculty role at Auburn in April 2018. The couple became parents six days before Kyriakis started his job on the Plains.
Three months later, Naskou moved with the baby to Auburn, where she started her three-year residency in clinical pathology. The couple leaned on one another during the hectic transition time.
“Maria and I talk about everything. It’s definitely a strength in the relationship,” he said.
Constantinos Kyriakis is part of a research team in the College of Veterinary Medicine working with the USDA to prevent and control avian influenza.
Seeking solutions
This hardworking couple fits right in at Auburn.
Naskou is now the director of Auburn’s Clinical Pathology Laboratory, where she guides a team in diagnosing animals’ diseases by analyzing their bodily fluids.
“Our diagnostic lab provides service to the clinicians in the hospital, serving patients and clients, but also outside veterinarians who request laboratory workups for their patients,” she said.
Naskou also leads an active research laboratory focused on reducing inflammation — a common component of many systemic and genetic diseases — through platelet-derived and stem-cell therapeutics.
“I love targeting new remedies to treat diseases that we cannot treat as efficiently with the current therapeutic approaches,” she said.
Down the street, Kyriakis is an influenza expert and swine veterinarian. He studies how flu viruses move between species, including through surveillance of pigs and farmers. He also studies the virus on a smaller scale.
“We look at how the viruses evolve in cell lines — and in animals — to understand how they jump from one animal species to another and how they evade previous immune responses,” he said.
Kyriakis is also working to develop novel vaccines with the long-term goal of making a positive difference in both animal and human health.
“Influenza is one of the most-studied viruses, but there are a lot of things that we still need to know,” he said. “I would be delighted if at some point I could contribute with identifying a better vaccine or therapeutic to help combat disease.”
Kyriakis and Naskou both enjoy mentoring students as they generate new knowledge.
“When they win awards or their publications are successful and cited, that makes me really proud,” he said.
For both Naskou and Kyriakis, working hard has been a cornerstone of their careers. It’s an example they set for their students.
“As long as you put in hard work, you can do everything,” Naskou said. “I’m not the smartest person, but I work a lot, and I’m trying to bring that example to my daughters. Just by working hard, you can shape a lot of things.”
Constantinos Kyriakis and Maria Naskou have been married since 2015, colleagues at Auburn since 2018 and are the proud parents of three girls.
By day, Naskou and Kyriakis run their labs. Back at home, they divvy up the household and child care duties equally. One of the couple’s favorite places to be together is in the kitchen.
Before meeting his wife, Kyriakis had lived around the world, including Hungary and Belgium. Cooking became a comfort in these unfamiliar locations — a place of order.
“I found cooking very relaxing,” he said. “After a long day at the lab, I would come back, go to the grocery store, cook different things and experiment a lot.”
Now, he brings his young daughters into the experimentation — whether creating baby foods from scratch or making foods that vary from homemade pasta to fried rice.
When Naskou cooks, she is a masterful multitasker — chopping an onion, tending to a baby and then responding to an email. She often makes meals by heart that her mom taught her back in Greece, including moussaka and pasticcio.
Their different cooking styles lead to the same evening routine — two scientists and their three girls around a dinner table in Auburn — the most ordinary and unexpected of moments.
“We are in a lovely place here in Auburn. We’re blessed with our family, our jobs and the support we have,” she said. “It’s hard to believe sometimes. We’ve come a long way.”
