He received a B.S. from Tsinghua University, did his Ph.D. work at Caltech with Prof. Jim Heath, and completed his postdoctoral training with Prof. Xiaowei Zhuang at Harvard University. His current research develops new physicochemical tools to interrogate biological, chemical, and materials systems at the nanoscale with extraordinary resolution, sensitivity, and functionality. To this end, his lab takes a multidimensional approach that integrates advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, cell biology, and nanotechnology. Ke is a Sloan Research Fellow, a Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering, a Beckman Young Investigator, and a Pew Biomedical Scholar, and has received an NSF CAREER Award and the Talented 12 by C&EN.