On June 1, Jeff Pigott becomes the newest SCSAM engineer, but this won’t be his first time working at Case.

Shortly after earning his PhD in Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University (OSU), Pigott became a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Case in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. From 2015 to 2018, he worked with James Van Orman on high-pressure diffusion experiments in order to understand deformation in Earth’s inner core. He said that he “loved Case, was very happy working there, loved the culture of the university and the campus, loved Cleveland.”  

An Ohio native, Pigott earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology at OSU. He then returned to OSU for both his Masters of Science and PhD degrees in Earth Sciences where he conducted mineral physics research with Wendy Panero. Most recently, Pigott was a Harold Agnew National Security Postdoctoral Fellow with the Shock and Detonation Physics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  While in LANL, he used synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction to study metals under extreme pressure and temperature conditions to obtain phase diagrams and equations of state.

As a postdoc at Case, he frequently used SCSAM. He finds using electron microscopy to help solve a broad range of scientific and engineering problems at SCSAM “very appealing” and looks forward to working with Case faculty and students, as well as industry clients. Pigott knew he wanted to work at SCSAM after coming out to Cleveland and spending the day with DMSE and SCSAM faculty and staff. An avid Cleveland sports fan, he pointed out that the Cavaliers won the NBA championship the season after he first moved here and predicted that this time, the Browns will win the Super Bowl.