About

Ming Su is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, who joined the department in Fall 2014. His research focuses on biosensing, nanomedicines, nanoparticles, and nano-enhanced processes, with a multidisciplinary approach targeting disease detection, radiation therapy, and covert thermal barcodes. He is developing innovative platforms such as a multi-marker blood assay for rapid disease screening using phase change nanoparticles, a covert barcode system with high labeling capacity for drug and document authentication and explosive tracking, and nanoparticle-enhanced radiation therapy for combating drug-resistant bacteria. His long-term goal is to leverage his expertise in advanced materials, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, biosensing, and X-ray microanalysis to create next-generation diagnostic and therapeutic platforms for early disease detection and treatment.

Research topics

• Chemical engineering
• Materials science
• Organic chemistry
• Chemistry
• Composite material
• Optoelectronics
• Nanotechnology
• Physical chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry

Selected publications

• Grain size, precipitated phases, and texture dependence on the hoop mechanical properties of GH4169 thin-walled tubes

  Journal of Alloys and Compounds · 2025-11-01 · 2 citations

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Thermal degradation kinetics and behavior of MPN from Ginkgo biloba

  Journal of Food Engineering · 2025-11-20

  articleOpen access

  Herein, we investigated the thermal degradation kinetics and behavior of 4′-O-methylpyridoxine (MPN) a toxic component in Ginkgo biloba seeds (GBSs), to advance its thermal detoxification strategies. Using a multi-analytical approach—including thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), coupled thermogravimetry–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy–mass spectrometry (TG–FTIR–MS), pyrolysis–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), and HPLC-IT-TOF-MS, we identified methanol as the key volatile product and revealed that degradation initiates with cleavage of the 4′-methoxy C–O bond within 303–523 K. Kinetic analysis quantified the mean activation energy at 105–106 kJ/mol, indicating an energy-intensive process that follows a random nucleation and growth model, accompanied by the formation of non-volatile dimers. Toxicity assessment shows that the acute toxicity of degradation products is reduced. These findings offer a scientific basis for optimizing thermal processing parameters to enhance the safety of GBSs in food and medicinal applications. • Model-free isoconversional methods revealed that average activation energy of MPN degradation is 105–106 kJ/mol. • Thermal treatment at 453 K for 30 min resulted in a 77.5 % decrease in MPN content in Ginkgo biloba seeds. • Methanol is the main gas-phase pyrolysis product from 303 Kto 523 K, alongside the formation of non-volatile dimers. • The primary mechanism is the cleavage of the C–O bond in the 4ʹ-methoxy group at 483 K.

  PublisherDOI

• Effect of solid-solution treatment temperature on the microstructure and ring hoop mechanical property of GH4169 thin-walled seamless tubes for aerospace application

  Materials Characterization · 2025-07-15 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Preparation of Molybdenum-Doped Cobalt-Iron Layered Double Hydroxide Hollow Nanorods Via a ‘One-Stone-Two-Birds’ Strategy for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Convenient Preparation of Ni-Fe Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets on Hollow Co3o4 Cubes for Monitoring the Environmental Pollutant Nitrobenzene

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Biocompatible passive radiative cooling rapid-curing fiberglass casts

  Journal of Materials Chemistry A · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Passive daytime radiative cooling coating on fiberglass casts effectively lowers the surface temperature compared to the uncoated control cast.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evidential Interpretation Approach for Deep Neural Networks in High-Frequency Electromagnetic Wave Processing

  Electronics · 2025-08-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Despite the widespread adoption of high-frequency electromagnetic wave (HF-EMW) processing, deep neural networks (DNNs) remain primarily black boxes. Interpreting the semantics behind the high-dimensional representations of a DNN is quite crucial for getting insights into the network. This study has proposed an evidential representation fusion approach that interprets the high-dimensional representations of a DNN as HF-EMW semantics, such as time- and frequency-domain signal features and their physical interpretation. In this approach, an evidential discrete model based on Dempster–Shafer theory (DST) converts a subset of DNN representations to mass function reasoning on a class set, indicating whether the subset contains HF-EMW semantics information. An interpretable continuous DST-based model maps the subset into HF-EMW semantics via representation fusion. Finally, the two DST-based models are extended to interpret the learning processes of high-dimensional DNN representations. Experiments on the two datasets with 2680 and 4000 groups of HF-EMWs demonstrate that the approach can find and interpret representation subsets as HF-EMW semantics, achieving an absolute fractional output change of 39.84% with an 10% removed elements in most important features. The interpretations can be applied for visual learning evaluation, semantic-guided reinforcement learning with an improvement of 4.23% on classification accuracy, and even HF-EMW full-waveform inversion.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 0D Fluorescent Nanomaterials: Preparation, Properties, and its Antibacterial Applications

  Advanced NanoBiomed Research · 2025-08-27

  articleOpen access

  Currently, the overuse of antibiotics has led to the widespread dissemination of multidrug‐resistant bacteria, making the development of novel antimicrobial agents an urgent scientific challenge. 0D fluorescent nanomaterials (including carbon quantum dots, semiconductor quantum dots, and metal nanoclusters) exhibit outstanding antibacterial performance due to their unique nanoscale size effects, excellent biocompatibility, and remarkable surface‐area effects, positioning them as a promising solution against multidrug‐resistant bacterial infections. This review systematically summarizes the synthesis strategies and characteristic properties of these materials, with a focus on their antimicrobial applications in medical and health care, the food industry, agriculture, and industry. Furthermore, the advantages and current technical limitations of these emerging antimicrobial agents are critically discussed. The aim of this review is to provide a theoretical foundation for the rational design and development of nanoantibacterial materials while facilitating their translational applications in biomedicine.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Passion Fruit-Shaped Iron-Nickel Co-Doped Carbon Spheres for Efficient and Sensitive Detection of Nitrobenzene Pollutants

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• The influence of air temperature on heat transfer coefficient under forced air-cooling conditions

  International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow · 2025-01-06 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant DP2EB016572

  NIH · $2.2M · 2017

• Encapsulated phase change nanoparticles for heat transfer

  NSF · $300k · 2008–2012

• CAREER: Biosensing in thermal space

  NSF · $234k · 2011–2013

• CAREER: Biosensing in thermal space

  NSF · $166k · 2014–2016

• CAREER: Biosensing in thermal space

  NSF · $250k · 2013–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Liyuan Ma

  Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

  74 shared

• Chaoming Wang

  Chinese Institute for Brain Research

  45 shared

• Junjie Deng

  University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

  42 shared

• Yong Qiao

  Second Hospital of Shandong University

  37 shared

• Xiaojie Xun

  University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

  36 shared

• Liyuan Zheng

  31 shared

• Yang Luo

  Kunming Medical University

  20 shared

• Qingxuan Li

  Xidian University

  19 shared

Labs

• Northeastern University College of Engineering - Ming Su LabPI

Awards & honors

• American Chemical Society Doctoral New Investigator Award
• Department of Defense Concept Award
• Department of Justice New Investigator Award
• Eugene P. Wigner Fellowship
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory