Because of its impact on science and engineering students in northeast Ohio, SCSAM was featured in the Ohio Space Grant Consortium's Student Showcase. You can read the full text to the article, written by Olivia Bogna at OSGC, below.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Dr. Jeffrey Pigott and Faculty Director, Professor Jennifer Carter, the Case School of Engineering’s Swagelok Center for Surface Analysis of Material (CSE-SCSAM) has provided plenty for the science and engineering community of Northeast Ohio and the students who have taken advantage of the abundant opportunities the lab offers, giving them a spot on our Student Showcase.

SCSAM provides a wide variety of opportunities for students and industry partners to mutually benefit from each other. As the name suggests, the lab focuses on the characterization and analysis of materials, which encompasses chemical analysis, structural and properties characterization, and microscopic imaging. The breadth of materials they study is broad, with, metals, ceramics, geological materials, polymers, and nanomaterials being some of the many categorizations they analyze.

This greatly benefits the students attending CWRU; since this lab is available to the entire CWRU community as well as external users in northeast Ohio and beyond, students of all disciplines can use the facility. Whether it’s a biomedical engineer looking to enhance materials for a prosthetic or geology student figuring out the composition of a rock, SCSAM can likely provide the tools needed for students to conduct their research. Their equipment encompasses but is not limited to: various types of microscopes (Scanning Electron, Optical, Atomic Force), and surface analysis microprobes (X-ray photoelectron spectrometer and Time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometer) .

Given their capabilities in conducting research and analysis, SCSAM provides plenty not only for students, but for Northeast Ohio as well. The more than 150 people taking advantage of SCSAM every year range from small start-ups to international companies, undergraduate students to postdoctoral researchers, and various others who are interested in conducting materials analysis. With over 30 companies who work with the lab annually, there has likely been a few industry developments that were spurred from the activities in this lab. And considering the yearly average of over75 research grants supported by the lab, a fair share of discoveries can be attributed to this lab. 

SCSAM is actively involved with the Microscopy Society of Northeastern Ohio (MSNO) and its annual May Conference. Students who conduct research using the tools in SCSAM also regularly attend and present data collected in SCSAM at national conferences. Students play a pivotal role in the functionality of this lab and have a wide range of opportunities available to them through the activities of the lab. With a focus on student involvement and engagement, the lab encourages the training on the equipment the lab holds. Those students, undergraduate and graduate, use the lab for research inside and outside the classroom. Graduate students involved in the lab commonly publish their research conducted here, receive staff engineer assistance with their theses and dissertation research, and can even be funded by a SCSAM endowment through the SCSAM Fellowship program. As well, it is often that students will present their findings at conferences such as the national Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference (M&M), Materials Science & Technology (MS&T), and The Mineral, Metals and Materials Society national conference (TMS) to name a few. These experiences, as well the apparent support of the engaging staff who administer activities in the lab, contribute significantly to the success and development of the students who operate at SCSAM.

Amongst the many successful students that have done work in SCSAM, two were highlighted for their notable achievements through their academics and research.

Brett Ley is a second year PhD student in the Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Reliability Center (AMMRC) at Case Western Reserve University and is advised by Professor John J Lewandowski. The imaging capabilities within SCSAM are integral for Brett’s research and have allowed him to study the connection between the structure of additively manufactured metals and their mechanical properties measured in the AMMRC. Currently, Brett is investigating how common defects in additively manufactured parts interact with microstructure to cause fatigue failure (NASA STRI: IMQCAM). Additionally, he is studying how the structure of additively manufactured parts can be modified through deformation to improve properties such as strength and ductility (NSF ERC: HAMMER). Brett has presented his work at MS&T and TMS conferences and will be presenting “Refining the Fatigue and Toughness-Based Process Window and Understanding Long Crack Growth Behavior in LPBF Ti64 Specimens Fabricated Across PV Space” at TMS 2025. To Brett, the availability of the high quality and versatile instruments that SCSAM provides, coupled with the support of the devoted staff that oversee the lab, has contributed significantly to the success of projects that he’s been involved with. 

Ke “Tom” Wang is another student who began using SCSAM while he pursued both his undergraduate program capstone with a focus in additive manufacturing, and Master’s in glucose sensors. He now works closely with the lab on a project related to corrosion of metals in seawater using the Hummingbird electrochemical cell for in situ experiments in a scanning electron microscope. As he continues with his work at SCSAM, which is currently taking inspiration from the work he is doing with the Hummingbird project, he is currently interested in going into industry to conduct research on fuel and solar cells. As a student who has spent a vast amount of time at SCSAM through their undergraduate and graduate degree, he has enjoyed being involved with the lab, and attributes the supportive staff to his great experiences working there.

For many in the northeast part of Ohio, ranging from international manufacturing companies to first-year students who have just begun delving into the depth of their coursework, the Swagelok Center for Surface Analysis of Materials in the Case School of Engineering has played an essential role for the area’s industry. Between providing the materials for many to conduct pivotal research in a variety of disciplines and giving the students using the lab the necessary and crucial support to develop them into tomorrow’s innovators, the effects that SCSAM has had on Case Western Reserve University and its population has been immense and notably beneficial. In the words of Dr. Jeffrey Pigott, who works closely with not only Brett Ley and Ke Wang but many other students using the facility, “It is incredibly rewarding to see the students using CSE-SCSAM develop into skilled researchers, and it is inspiring to see them using the tools in the lab to tackle real-world challenges”.