 Following a career opportunity for her husband, an aeronautical engineer and computer scientist, she moved her family to Phoenix, Arizona in 1970.Once Pizzarello's youngest of four children finished primary school, her focus returned to her career after a decade away from scientific research.She audited a graduate biochemistry seminar course at ASU where she met Professor John Cronin, future co-discoverer of amino acid enantiomeric excess in meteorites.