John Henry J. Scott

NIST
NRC Postdoc
September 1997 to August 1999

As a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Surface and Microanalysis Science Division, working with Dale Newbury (Link), I completed projects involving energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM), quantitative EELS, energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), neutron and x-ray diffraction, and Monte Carlo simulation. I was responsible for the maintenance and operation of a field emission TEM/STEM and oversaw the installation of an Emispec Vision data acquisition system and a Gatan multiscan CCD camera. While assisting with smaller projects I acquired hands-on experience with environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), wavelength-dispersive spectroscopy (WDS), and a variety of microscope automation, data acquisition, and quantitative analysis systems from different vendors.

Carnegie Mellon University
Postdoc
August 1996 to August 1997

During a one year postdoctoral appointment with Sara Majetich (my PhD advisor) I conducted research on magnetic nanoparticles and thermal plasma synthesis using a 50 kW RF plasma torch. While collaborating with the Materials Science and Engineering Department, I helped resurrect a Vacuum Generators HB-501 dedicated STEM. This included changing the field emission source, resolving vacuum problems, and some minor electronics troubleshooting and repair. Before leaving, I participated in the early planning to retrofit a parallel EELS spectrometer to the top of the VG column.

Carnegie Mellon University
Graduate Student
September 1993 to July 1996

Ph.D. Thesis:
"Morphology and Growth of Carbon-Arc Nanoparticles".
Advisor:
Dr. Sara Majetich (Bio) (Research)

Logicon
Physicist
December 1991 to August 1993

After one year of graduate school at CMU, I took a leave of absence from the Physics PhD program to live with my wife Keana as she finished school at Caltech and got her first job in Los Angeles. During this time I worked for the Strategic and Information Systems Division at Logicon, Inc. Under contract with the Department of Defense, I enhanced models for predicting detailed strategic threats against US weapon systems and target complexes for the Joint Staff (J-8, Force Structure, Resource, and Assessment Directorate). I also performed nuclear weapons exchange simulations, designed and implemented an embedded relational database system, and worked on optimization algorithms for nuclear sorties.

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Physicist
May 1990 to August 1990

As a summer student in the NRL Acoustics Division, I supported underwater acoustics and anti-submarine warfare experiments involving phased array systems, delay-and-sum beamforming, and sound speed profile modeling. Some of the signal processing techniques I worked with included matched filtering, matched field processing, and deconvolution of noise from acoustic transfer functions.