Prof. Dr. Yung Doug Suh

Prof. Dr. Yung Doug Suh is a distinguished physical chemist specializing in nanospectroscopy and molecular imaging. He is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM) at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea.

Prof. Suh earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Seoul National University between 1986 and 1999. During his doctoral research, he worked on molecular reaction dynamics, surface physics, and laser spectroscopy. Following his Ph.D., he conducted postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich in the Nano Analysis Lab of Prof. Renato Zenobi, where, in 2000, he co-discovered and named Tip-Enhanced Raman Scattering (TERS). TERS has since become a cornerstone of nanoscale vibrational spectroscopy, allowing for unprecedented spatial resolution in vibrational imaging.

Prof. Suh’s research focuses on advanced nanospectroscopic techniques, including nanogap-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (NERS), upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs), and avalanching nanoparticles (ANPs). His work has significant applications in single-molecule detection, super-resolution imaging, and nanophotonics, contributing to the fields of molecular sensing and imaging at the nanoscale.

Throughout his career, Prof. Suh has held academic and research positions at institutions including POSTECH, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), and Sungkyunkwan University. He has authored over 200 publications, including highly cited works in journals such as Nature, Nature Photonics, and Nano Letters.

He has been recognized with several honors, including the Young Investigator Award from the Korea Research Foundation (1993) and the Young Vacuum Scientist Award from the Korean Vacuum Society (1996). Prof. Suh also co-organizes the annual SPIE Enhanced Spectroscopies and Nanoimaging (ESN) Symposium in San Diego, an event that highlights advances in nanospectroscopy and imaging technologies.