PIs

Status: unreviewed revisit date: None Application status: none LOR status: not_needed
Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Trenti Astrophysics and Space Instrumentation Group @ UMelb
Summary:

Trenti combines high-redshift galaxy and gamma-ray-burst science with hands-on space instrumentation: he leads SkyHopper, a 6U CubeSat carrying a cooled near-infrared telescope intended for rapid follow-up of transients and exoplanet transits, which is an unusually complete exercise in building a photon-starved instrument under severe SWaP constraints. The group also works on infrared detector characterisation and on-board autonomy. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — the relevance to a quantum-sensing candidate is the engineering discipline of getting a low-noise detector to work in a hostile, uncontrolled environment — the same problem that separates a laboratory pT/sqrt(Hz) NV magnetometer from a fieldable one. Borderline inclusion on the astronomy criterion; kept because instrumentation is a genuine focus rather than a by-product.

Created at: July 12, 2026, 1:03 a.m. Updated at: July 12, 2026, 1:03 a.m. Metadata: Fresh 2026-07-11. Primary lab: astrophysics and space instrumentation, School of Physics; SkyHopper CubeSat principal investigator.