Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo is a Malaysian-born

chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...

and the Theodora D. '78 and William H. Walton III '74 Professor in Engineering at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where she is also the Director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. She is known for inventing nanotransfer printing. Loo was elected a Fellow of the

Materials Research Society The Materials Research Society (MRS) is a non-profit, professional organization for materials researchers, scientists and engineers. Established in 1973, MRS is a member-driven organization of approximately 13,000 materials researchers from academi ...

in 2020.

Early life and education

Loo was born in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, Malaysia, and later lived in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

, Taiwan, where she attended

Taipei American School Taipei American School (TAS; ; abbreviation TAS) is a non-profit private school, private international school with an American-based curriculum located in Tianmu, Shilin District, Tianmu, Shilin District, Taipei, Taiwan. TAS serves students from ...

. She moved to the United States to attend the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where she completed bachelor's degrees in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

and

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

in 1996. She then pursued graduate studies at

, where she received a Ph.D. in

in 2001 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "Controlled polymer crystallization through block copolymer self-assembly."

Research and career

She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

for a year afterward before joining the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

's Chemical Engineering Department. During her time at Bell Labs, Loo, along with Julia Hsu, accidentally uncovered duplicated figures in two papers by Jan Hendrik Schön, the first of many instances of academic fraud from the researcher. In 2004, she was included by ''

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

'' on its

TR35 The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at '' Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com ...

list of under-35-year-old innovators for her invention of nanotransfer printing, a technique for printing nanoscale patterns onto plastic surfaces. This technique allows for the creation of organic electronic devices by printing electrical circuit components onto plastic surfaces. In 2007, Loo joined the faculty of Princeton's Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, where, , she is the Theodora D. '78 and William H. Walton III '74 Professor in Engineering. Her research concerns the periodic structures of

block polymer In polymer chemistry, a copolymer is a polymer derived from more than one species of monomer. The polymerization of monomers into copolymers is called copolymerization. Copolymers obtained from the copolymerization of two monomer species are som ...

organic semiconductor Organic semiconductors are solids whose building blocks are pi-bonded molecules or polymers made up by carbon and hydrogen atoms and – at times – heteroatoms such as nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen. They exist in the form of molecular crystals o ...

s, and patterning techniques for plastic electronics. Loo launched the Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership (E-ffiliates) in 2012. In 2016 she was appointed director of Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Loo's research group studies solution-processable organic semiconductors and conductors. She also researches soft lithography. Using derivatives of

Hexabenzocoronene Hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC) is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with the molecular formula C42H18. It consists of a central coronene molecule, with an additional benzene ring fused between each adjacent pair of rings around the periphery. ...

Loo's group developed transparent near-UV solar cells for smart windows, which also contain electrochromic polymers that control the window tint. Loo co-founded Andluca Technologies in 2017.

Awards and honors

* 2005

Beckman Young Investigators Award The Beckman Young Investigators Award was established by Mabel and Arnold Beckman in 1991, and is now administered by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. The Beckman Young Investigator (BYI) Program is intended to provide research support to ...

*2006 O’Donnell Award from the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas *2008 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship *2010 John H. Dillon Medal from the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

*2011 Appointed to the

Global Young Academy The Global Young Academy (GYA) is an international society of young scientists, aiming to give a voice to young scientists across the globe.... Membership strength is capped at 200, and the membership tenure is 5 years. Organization and member ...

*2012 Owens Corning Early Career Award *2013 Elected Fellow of the

*2015 Finalist for the

Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists was established in 2007 through a partnership between the Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Leonard Blavatnik (Russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник), chairman of Access Indu ...

National Awards in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category * 2020 Elected Fellow of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loo, Yueh-lin Living people Chemical engineers Chemical engineering academics Malaysian engineers Malaysian women engineers Princeton University faculty Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni People from Kuala Lumpur Polymer scientists and engineers Women materials scientists and engineers Malaysian emigrants to the United States Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century women engineers Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century Malaysian engineers