Ananthanarayanan was awarded the Royal Microscopical Society Life Sciences Award in 2025 for the use of novel microscopies in cell biology. Her group images individual motor proteins — dynein, kinesin — and the mitochondria they transport, in living cells, at single-molecule sensitivity, combining light-sheet and TIRF-class imaging with particle tracking to ask how organelle positioning and mitochondrial dynamics are controlled. The methodological emphasis is on getting single-molecule sensitivity inside a live cell rather than in vitro, which is the hard version of the problem. 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 — this is the closest thing at UNSW to a biological end-user for an in-cell quantum sensor: the mitochondrial systems she studies are precisely where NV nanodiamond thermometry and free-radical relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) have been aimed, and she has the live-cell imaging infrastructure to validate any such measurement independently.
Anders designs integrated-circuit quantum and magnetic-resonance sensors: EPR-on-a-chip (single-chip ESR spectrometers reaching ~1e9 spins/sqrt(Hz)), chip-scale NMR relaxometry for point-of-care, and CMOS/SiGe-integrated diamond NV magnetometers - miniaturizing spin sensing onto silicon. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work is the integrated-circuit route to deployable NV/EPR ensemble sensing.
Anderson's group designs molecular electron-spin qubit candidates -- including an air- and water-stable tetrathiafulvalene-bridged radical with spin centered on a nuclear-spin-free ligand -- that retain hundreds of nanoseconds of coherence in solution at room temperature, aiming toward solution-phase quantum sensing in biological environments. This complements solid-state NV-ensemble sensors, which use DEER, NMR, and T1-relaxometry protocols to reach pT/sqrt(Hz)-class magnetic sensitivity, by pursuing a chemically tunable molecular alternative that could operate directly in biological media.
PREFERRED. Anikeeva's Bioelectronics Group engineers minimally invasive, multifunctional fiber-based neural probes (combining optical, electrical, and microfluidic channels) and magnetic nanoparticle transducers that enable wireless, gene- and wire-free magnetothermal, magnetomechanical, and chemomagnetic neuromodulation, with applications spanning deep-brain stimulation and gut-brain circuit interrogation.
Araujo is a long-standing leader of the LZ (LUX-ZEPLIN) liquid-xenon dark matter experiment at SURF, working on detector design, calibration and background rejection for direct-detection WIMP searches, and previously ZEPLIN. His group also contributes to future noble-liquid detector R&D.
Ardavan leads the Quantum Spin Dynamics group, studying quantum coherent phenomena in condensed matter. Central to the lab's quantum sensing relevance: (1) molecular spin qubits — using pulsed EPR/DEER to characterise and control multi-spin registers ({Cr7Ni} molecular rings, nitroxide radical chains) assembled into qubit networks, measuring coherence times, inter-qubit couplings, and demonstrating spin-electric coupling in molecular magnets; (2) DNA-assembled molecular quantum devices — using DNA nanostructures to precisely position molecular spin qubits for multi-qubit sensing and quantum information applications; (3) surface atom spin resonance — STM-based coherent spin control of individual atoms on surfaces at nanosecond timescales. Uses X-band through W-band pulsed EPR at Centre for Advanced Electron Spin Resonance (CAESR), Oxford.
Ashley builds instruments that must work unattended in the worst environment on Earth: the PLATO and related autonomous observatories on the Antarctic plateau (Dome A/C), where he characterised the site's exceptional infrared background, seeing and atmospheric stability, and built the power, thermal and control systems needed for a telescope to survive a polar winter with no human present. He also works on low-noise infrared detectors and on CubeSat instrumentation. 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 discipline here — making a low-noise detector work reliably outside a controlled laboratory, with a hard power and thermal budget — is the same one that separates a benchtop pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometer from a deployable one, and it is a skill set the quantum sensing field is short of. Borderline inclusion under the astronomy criterion; kept because the sensor and its environment are the entire object of study.
Atatüre leads the ~30-person QOMS group at the Cavendish. Three main thrusts: (1) Spin-based quantum networks — demonstrating distant entanglement generation and photonic cluster states using semiconductor quantum dots (InGaAs, GaAs) and diamond spin defects (NV, SiV, SnV), including a many-body nuclear-spin quantum register demonstrated in 2025 (Nature Physics); (2) Quantum-enhanced nanoscale sensing — scanning NV diamond magnetometry of emergent magnetism in novel 2D/layered materials and quantum transport in nanocircuits, plus nanodiamond-based in-cell sensing (nanoMRI, thermometry, diffusion in C. elegans); (3) Novel quantum materials — hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) optically-active spin defects at room temperature, and moiré physics in TMD heterostructures. He is co-founder and CSO of Nu Quantum Ltd.
Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam (Associate Professor, BioNanoscience) uses single-molecule tools to study membrane proteins and cell biophysics. Research: (1) optical tweezers protein unfolding — mechanical unfolding of membrane proteins to probe folding landscape; (2) single-molecule cell biophysics — force spectroscopy on live cells; (3) synthetic biology applications — integrating engineered proteins with biophysical tools.
Craik leads the RAVIOLIS project (SNSF Starting Grant, started July 2025) measuring atomic parity violation in barium ions at <0.1% precision. Her entanglement protocol uses multi-ion entangled states with photonic integrated waveguide addressing to common-mode-reject parity-conserving systematics. Previous work: precision measurement of Ba+ dipole transition probabilities below 1% uncertainty; first laser-guided individual addressing of Ba+ qubits with <10^-4 intensity crosstalk; isotope-shift spectroscopy in Ca+ for fifth-force searches. She is actively recruiting for postdocs and PhD students for the new Ba+ ion trap experiment.