Jones's group develops optical tweezers instrumentation for biological applications. Research directions: (1) Single-cell mechanics — using optical traps to apply calibrated forces to cells and measure viscoelastic properties relevant to cancer invasion and immune response; (2) Motor protein biophysics — measuring force-velocity curves of kinesin/myosin motors at the single-molecule level; (3) Optical sorting — holographic optical tweezers for cell sorting by mechanical phenotype; (4) Instrument development — fast-switching AOD-based traps, quantitative phase imaging combined with force measurement. Sensitive to pN forces, combining biosensing with fundamental biophysics.
Jones leads the SPIDER balloon-borne CMB polarimeter (and the successor Taurus mission), building and flying large TES bolometer arrays from Antarctic long-duration balloon platforms to measure degree-scale CMB polarization with minimal atmospheric loading, and also leads SuperBIT, a near-diffraction-limited stratospheric optical telescope. Like Staggs, he is included here as an astronomy/instrumentation pivot whose science case rests on cutting-edge cryogenic detector-array sensitivity.
Chirlmin Joo (Full Professor, BioNanoscience) uses single-molecule fluorescence to study RNA dynamics and CRISPR-Cas. Research: (1) single-molecule FRET and direct RNA imaging — visualizing RNA folding, ribozyme catalysis, and mRNA translation dynamics; (2) CRISPR-Cas mechanism — real-time observation of Cas9 and Cas13 target search and cleavage; (3) nanopore-based protein sensing integration with optical tools. ERC Grant.
Siddarth Joshi's group works on satellite-based quantum key distribution, quantum information protocols, and chip-scale quantum technologies. Research: (1) QKD receiver miniaturization for satellites and CubeSats; (2) chip-scale quantum random number generation and single-photon detection; (3) quantum metrology and sensing with photonic chips. Part of EPSRC Quantum Communications Hub.
Theoretical and phenomenology-driven particle physicist working on dark-matter detection concepts, including collaboration on experimental efforts using organic scintillators for directional/anisotropic dark-matter detection.
Jeroen Kalkman develops optical tomography and spectroscopy methods for biomedical imaging. Research: (1) Fourier-domain OCT including spectroscopic OCT for tissue structural and functional imaging; (2) novel light sources and detectors for skin cancer detection (NWO KIC project NextDeLights); (3) scattering media imaging. His work is relevant to advanced biosensing with optical coherence.
Kamal directs the QUEST (QUantum Engineering Science and Technology) group, developing theory for quantum-limited readout of superconducting circuits: nonreciprocal parametric (Josephson-junction) amplifiers, left-handed-metamaterial traveling-wave amplifiers, and autonomous entanglement stabilization/error-correction protocols. Her work sets the fundamental noise limits that superconducting-qubit-based quantum sensors and quantum computers can approach, in close collaboration with experimental groups at NIST Boulder and elsewhere. The group is actively recruiting postdoctoral scholars.
Kaminski's Laser Analytics Group develops laser-based super-resolution and fluorescence-lifetime imaging methods (STED, SIM, dSTORM, FLIM) and applies them, with long-time collaborator Gabriele Kaminski Schierle, to visualise amyloid protein aggregation in live cells and organisms as a route to understanding neurodegenerative disease; the group also directs the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sensor Technologies.
Kaminski Schierle heads the Molecular Neuroscience Group, applying super-resolution and functional fluorescence imaging (developed with Clemens Kaminski) to gain molecular-level understanding of protein misfolding in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease models, including live-cell and whole-organism (C. elegans) imaging of amyloid aggregation.
Kante's group explores topological and non-Hermitian (parity-time-symmetric) photonic structures, including magnetless nonreciprocal metasurfaces and topological lasers, to control light-matter interaction in nanophotonic devices in ways not accessible to conventional photonics.