Nghia Vo

Brookhaven National Laboratory

National Synchrotron Light Source II
Bldg. 741, Room 140
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-7043
nvo@bnl.gov

Pronouns: he/him

Expertise | Research | Education | Appointments | Publications | Highlights

Expertise

Specializing in method development and scientific software development, particularly in:

• Image processing methods for X-ray tomography, including ring artifact removal, distortion correction, phase retrieval, image alignment, and image reconstruction.
• Geometrical and detector calibration methods for hard X-ray techniques.
• Python software development for image processing in tomography and camera calibration:
  • Algotom - methods and software for tomographic data processing.
  • Discorpy - methods and software for camera calibration and distortion correction.
  • Sarepy - methods for ring artifact removal in tomographic images.

Research Activities

• Developing data processing methods and tools for hard X-ray techniques (tomography, XRD, EDXD): detector calibration, experiment calibration, and automation.
• Developing algorithms for X-ray phase-contrast imaging and tomography.
• Developing software (GUI, data processing workflows, data viewers, etc.) for beamline operation and productivity improvement.
  • Datview GUI for viewing text, image, CINE, and HDF files.
  • ScriptRunner GUI software for rendering arguments of CLI Python scripts and scheduling runs.
  • ClusterRunner GUI software for submitting and managing Python jobs on Slurm Clusters
  • Broh5 Browser-based GUI for viewing HDF files

Education

After obtaining a B.Sc and a M.Sc degree in physics from the University of Science, VNUHCM, Vietnam; Nghia pursued a PhD study at Singapore Synchrotron Light Source, National University of Singapore. 

Professional Appointments

Nghia joined Diamond Light Source as a postdoc at Beamline I12 in 2013, and moved to scientific software group as a data analysist scientist in 2018. In 2022, he joined NSLS-II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and has been working as a beamline scientist at the HEX beamline.

Selected Publications

• Vo NT (2025) Discorpy: algorithms and software for camera calibration and correction. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 32:718–730. https://doi.org/10.1107/s1600577525002267
• Vo NT, Wang H, Hu L, et al (2022) Practical implementations of speckle-based phase-retrieval methods in Python and GPU for tomography. Developments in X-Ray Tomography XIV. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2636834
• Vo NT, Atwood RC, Drakopoulos M, Connolley T (2021) Data processing methods and data acquisition for samples larger than the field of view in parallel-beam tomography. Optics Express 29:17849. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.418448
• Vo NT, Atwood RC, Drakopoulos M (2019) Preprocessing techniques for removing artifacts in synchrotron-based tomographic images. Developments in X-Ray Tomography XII. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2530324
• Vo NT, Atwood RC, Drakopoulos M (2018) Superior techniques for eliminating ring artifacts in X-ray micro-tomography. Optics Express 26:28396. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.26.028396
• Vo NT, Atwood RC, Drakopoulos M (2015) Radial lens distortion correction with sub-pixel accuracy for X-ray micro-tomography. Optics Express 23:32859. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.23.032859
• Vo NT, Drakopoulos M, Atwood RC, Reinhard C (2014) Reliable method for calculating the center of rotation in parallel-beam tomography. Optics Express 22:19078. https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.22.019078
• Vo NT, Atwood RC, Moser HO, et al (2012) A fast-converging iterative method for X-ray in-line phase contrast tomography. Applied Physics Letters 101:. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4769046

Research Highlights

- His methods for removing ring artifacts in X-ray tomography have been widely adopted in open-source software across tomography facilities.

- He developed methods and accompanying software to correct radial and perspective distortion using a single calibration image, addressing a longstanding challenge in camera calibration.

- His data-processing methods for helical, grid, and double-field-of-view scans extend the capabilities of parallel-beam tomography systems at synchrotrons for high-resolution imaging of large samples.