Charles Pignon
About Charles Pignon
Charles Pignon is a plant physiologist with extensive academic and practical experience in agronomy and crop science. He currently works at Benson Hill, where he has contributed to significant advancements in data processing and experimental design.
Current Role at Benson Hill
Charles Pignon has served as a Plant Physiologist at Benson Hill since 2020. In this role, he focuses on advancing plant science and improving crop performance. His work contributes to the company's mission of sustainable agriculture and enhancing food production. Pignon has achieved a performance rating in the top 25% of company-wide evaluations, reflecting his contributions to the organization.
Education and Expertise
Charles Pignon holds multiple degrees in Agronomy and Crop Science. He earned his Bachelor's degree and Engineer's Degree from Ecole de PURPAN between 2007 and 2013. He furthered his studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he achieved a Master's Degree from 2011 to 2013 and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from 2014 to 2017. His educational background equips him with a strong foundation in plant physiology and agricultural science.
Professional Experience
Pignon has a diverse professional background in plant science and agronomy. He worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2011 to 2017 and as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Leakey lab from 2018 to 2019. He also held a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center from 2019 to 2020. His internships include experiences at INTA in Argentina and IFREMER in France.
Research and Projects
Charles Pignon has led significant research initiatives, including corn field irrigation trials across the United States with a budget of $250,000. He designed an automated R pipeline that improved data quality and reduced processing time by 50% for 24 experimental field sites valued at over $1.1 million. Additionally, he managed a $162,000 budget for UAV-based hyperspectral and lidar imaging projects aimed at predicting soybean nutritional quality.
Technical Contributions
Pignon has made notable technical contributions to experimental design and data management. He created an R platform to enhance experimental consistency and replicability, which involved building, balancing, and randomizing layouts in over 20 experiments. His expertise in data analysis and experimental design supports the advancement of agricultural research and development.