After his graduate work with the late Karen J. Brewer at Virginia Tech, he worked as a postdoc in the Ford lab at UC Santa Barbara to create new compounds with caged CS2. Appointments at the University of North Carolina followed with Malcolm Forbes using EPR to study reactions with photo-generated 1O2 and with John Papanikolas in the UNC-EFRC Center for Solar Fuels to examine photo-initiated electron transfer at semiconductor/electrolyte interfaces. Professor Zigler's current research interests include inorganic phototherapeutics and materials for solar-to-chemical energy conversion.