Jianwei (John) Miao

Biography

Jianwei (John) Miao is a Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. received an MS in physics from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994, a PhD in physics, an MS in computer science, and an advanced graduate certificate in biomedical engineering from State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1999. After graduation, he became a staff scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University. In 2004, he moved to UCLA as an assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 2009.

Research

Miao performed the first experiment on extending crystallography to allow structural determination of non-crystalline specimens in 1999, known as coherent diffractive imaging (CDI), lensless imaging, or computational microscopy. CDI methods such as ptychography and Bragg CDI have transformed our conventional view of microscopy by replacing the physical lens with coherent diffraction and computational algorithms. In 2012, he applied CDI algorithms to pioneer atomic electron tomography (AET), enabling 3D structure determination of crystal defects and disordered materials. In 2021, he advanced AET to solve a long-standing problem in the physical sciences - determining the 3D atomic structure of amorphous materials. Miao is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, a Kavli Fellow, a Theodore von Kármán Fellow, a University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study Fellow, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a recipient of the Werner Meyer-Ilse Memorial Award and the 2021 MRS Innovation in Materials Characterization Award.

Selected Publications

1. Y. Yuan, D.S. Kim, J. Zhou, D.J. Chang, F. Zhu, Y. Nagaoka, Y. Yang, M. Pham, S. J. Osher, O. Chen, P. Ercius, A. K. Schmid and J. Miao, “Three-dimensional atomic packing in amorphous solids with liquid-like structure”, Nature Mater. 21, 95–102 (2022).

2. Y. Yang, J. Zhou, F. Zhu, Y. Yuan, D. Chang, D. S. Kim, M. Pham, A. Rana, X. Tian, Y. Yao, S. Osher, A. K. Schmid, L. Hu, P. Ercius and J. Miao, “Determining the three-dimensional atomic structure of an amorphous solid”, Nature 592, 60–64 (2021).

3. X. Tian, D. S. Kim, S. Yang, C. J. Ciccarino, Y. Gong, Yo. Yang, Ya. Yang, B. Duschatko, Y. Yuan, P. M. Ajayan, J. C. Idrobo, P. Narang and J. Miao, “Correlating the three-dimensional atomic defects and electronic properties of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides”, Nature Mater. 19, 867-873 (2020).

4. J. Zhou, Y. Yang, Y. Yang, D. S. Kim, A. Yuan, X. Tian, C. Ophus, F. Sun, A. K. Schmid, M. Nathanson, H. Heinz, Q. An, H. Zeng, P. Ercius and J. Miao. “Observing crystal nucleation in four dimensions using atomic electron tomography”, Nature 570, 500-503 (2019).

5. Y. Yang, C.-C. Chen, M. C. Scott, C. Ophus, R. Xu, A. Pryor Jr, L. Wu, F. Sun, W. Theis, J. Zhou, M. Eisenbach, P. R. C. Kent, R. F. Sabirianov, H. Zeng, P. Ercius and J. Miao, “Deciphering chemical order/disorder and material properties at the single-atom level”, Nature 542, 75-79 (2017).

6. J. Miao, P. Ercius and S. J. L. Billinge, “Atomic electron tomography: 3D structures without crystals”, Science 353, aaf2157 (2016).

7. J. Miao, T. Ishikawa, I. K. Robinson and M. M. Murnane, “Beyond crystallography: Diffractive imaging using coherent x-ray light sources”, Science 348, 530-535 (2015).

8. C. C. Chen, C. Zhu, E. R. White, C.-Y. Chiu, M. C. Scott, B. C. Regan, L. D. Marks, Y. Huang and J. Miao, “Three-dimensional imaging of dislocations in a nanoparticle at atomic resolution”, Nature 496, 74–77 (2013).

9. M. C. Scott, C. C. Chen, M. Mecklenburg, C. Zhu, R. Xu, P. Ercius, U. Dahmen, B. C. Regan and J. Miao, “Electron tomography at 2.4-ångström resolution”, Nature 483, 444–447 (2012).

10. J. Miao, P. Charalambous, J. Kirz and D. Sayre, “Extending the methodology of X-ray crystallography to allow imaging of micrometre-sized non-crystalline specimens”, Nature 400, 342-344 (1999).