Ne-Te Duane Loh

Research Areas:

Self-organization in the elusive mesoscale liquid boundary layer on interfaces. Dynamic structural heterogeneity in nanoscale phenomena (e.g. liquids and aerosols) and biological macromolecules.

Current Research

• Exploratory microscopy is simultaneously driven by observations and hypotheses. Consequently, we need to develop robust interfaces that connect massive, complex, noisy, and incomplete data with foundational scientific knowledge.
• Our group is interested in combining machine learning with scientific and instrument priors to create computational lenses that help make sense of the chaotic and nearly invisible dynamics that occur at the nanometer-scale. These lenses combine statistical learning with priors (i.e., probe-sample interaction Physics, Optics, and instrumentation).
• We first developed these computational lenses for single-particle diffractive imaging with X-ray Free-electron Lasers, where unsupervised statistical learning can discover transient intermediate states and spontaneous order formation in highly heterogeneous and dynamic systems. Our group then extended these noise-robust methods to electron-based imaging sciences to develop core ideas and technologies towards far-reaching computational lenses that are too challenging for hardware-based electron microscopy alone.
• We have been applied these methods to study the following:
  • structural dynamics in biomolecules, viruses, cells;
  • spontaneous aggregation of disordered aerosols;
  • nucleation of nanocrystals in supercooled water and water under high-field strength;
  • nucleation and spinodal decomposition in nanoparticle dynamics in thin films;
  • strain profiles in self-assembled complex nanoparticles;
  • unsupervised classification of disordered motifs on 2D materials;
  • structural origins of color formation in nanophotonic structures on butterfly scales.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Cornell University (2004 — 2010)
• Bachelor of Science (BS) Harvey Mudd College (2000 — 2004)
• Hwachong Junior College (1996 — 1997)

Selected Publications

• Datta A, Ng KF, Balakrishnan D, Ding M, Chee SW, Ban Y, et al. A data reduction and compression description for high throughput time-resolved electron microscopy. Nat Commun. 2021;12: 664.
• Daurer BJ, Sala S, Hantke MF, Reddy HKN, Bielecki J, Shen Z, et al. Ptychographic wavefront characterization for single-particle imaging at x-ray lasers. Optica. 2021;8: 551.
• Cho DH, Shen Z, Ihm Y, Wi DH, Jung C, Nam D, et al. High-throughput 3D ensemble characterization of individual core-shell nanoparticles with X-ray free electron laser single-particle imaging. ACS Nano. 2021.
• Duane Loh N, Sen S, Bosman M, Tan SF, Zhong J, Nijhuis CA, et al. Multistep nucleation of nanocrystals in aqueous solution. Nat Chem. 2016;9: 77–82.
• Loh ND, Hampton CY, Martin AV, Starodub D, Sierra RG, Barty A, et al. Fractal morphology, imaging and mass spectrometry of single aerosol particles in flight. Nature. 2012;486: 513–517.