Barry works on the detection of the 21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionisation with the Murchison Widefield Array and, prospectively, SKA-Low. Her specialty is calibration systematics: she has shown how small errors in the sky and beam model propagate into spectral structure that mimics or swamps the cosmological signal, and has developed the diagnostic and mitigation framework that current MWA upper limits rest on. This is a measurement whose entire difficulty is instrumental. 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 intellectual structure is identical to a hard magnetometry measurement: raw sensitivity is adequate, and everything depends on understanding correlated, instrument-induced systematics well enough to subtract them below the signal. Early-career PI (DECRA). Borderline astronomy inclusion, kept on the systematics/instrument criterion.
Bartholomew trained with Sellars (ANU) and Faraon (Caltech) and runs the Quantum Integration Laboratory, which works on rare-earth ions (erbium, europium, ytterbium) in crystals and in nanophotonic devices. Rare-earth ions have the longest optical and spin coherence times of any solid-state emitter, which makes them simultaneously the best optical quantum memories and, less obviously, extremely good sensors: the group works on rare-earth-based microwave and RF quantum sensing, on-chip integration of ions with photonic and superconducting circuits, and telecom-band spin-photon interfaces. 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 — rare-earth ensembles are the closest solid-state analogue to NV ensembles, with narrower optical lines and longer coherence but cryogenic operation; protocols like DEER and dynamical-decoupling-enhanced sensing at pT/sqrt(Hz) map across directly. This is one of the best fits at Sydney for a solid-state spin-sensing candidate.
Bøttcher builds hybrid superconductor-semiconductor (Al/InAs) devices and develops new circuit-QED-based quantum sensing tools to probe emergent phases -- unconventional pairing, topological superconductivity -- in 2D and mesoscopic quantum materials that are difficult to access with conventional transport measurements.
Breeze is a senior research fellow at UCL working on room-temperature solid-state masers. Research directions: (1) Pentacene maser — first demonstration of a room-temperature, continuous-wave solid-state maser (Science 2018) using photoexcited triplet-state pentacene in p-terphenyl crystal; achieving amplification with noise temperature near 1 K; (2) Diamond NV maser — developing NV-center-based maser for ultra-low-noise microwave amplification at room temperature, relevant to quantum sensing readout chains; (3) Maser applications — quantum-limited amplification for dark matter searches, MRI signal amplification, and quantum communication repeaters; (4) Spin dynamics — understanding triplet-state dynamics in organic crystals for spin polarization control. Strong relevance to quantum-limited microwave sensing.
Cassidy (formerly Microsoft/Sydney) builds hybrid superconductor-semiconductor quantum devices and the microwave measurement chains needed to read them out: dispersive gate sensing, superconducting resonators coupled to semiconductor nanostructures, and quantum-limited parametric amplification. The programme sits at the boundary between quantum computing hardware and quantum sensing — many of the same circuits used to read a qubit are, viewed differently, near-quantum-limited detectors of microwave photons or of charge. 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 — a superconducting-resonator readout chain with a quantum-limited amplifier is the leading route to inductively-detected spin resonance at sensitivities well below the pT/sqrt(Hz) regime accessible to optical NV ensembles, and Cassidy's group has the full stack of skills required. Mid-career, actively building; good autonomy for a postdoc.
Croot returned from Princeton to found Sydney's Superconducting Quantum Circuits Laboratory. The programme uses superconducting circuits both as quantum processors and as extremely sensitive probes: coupling microwave resonators and qubits to other degrees of freedom (mechanical modes, semiconductor structures, spins) to build hybrid systems, and developing the quantum-limited amplification chain that makes single-microwave-photon detection possible. 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 — superconducting circuits are the principal competitor technology for detecting the weak microwave signals that NV ensembles read magnetically; a quantum-limited or squeezed microwave amplifier is what lets an inductively-detected spin ensemble reach — and beat — the pT/sqrt(Hz) regime. Newly established, well-equipped lab; high autonomy for a postdoc and active recruitment as the lab builds out.
de Lera Acedo heads the Cavendish Radio Astronomy and Cosmology group and is PI of the REACH experiment, a global 21-cm signal radiometer deployed in the Karoo desert, South Africa, targeting detection of the redshifted hydrogen signal from the Cosmic Dawn (z≈7.5–28). He has a PDRA opening for 21-cm cosmology data analysis. Research spans novel antenna design, ultra-low-noise receiver calibration (achieving ~80 mK RMSE), Bayesian foreground modelling, and RFI mitigation. He also leads the CosmoCube space mission concept for lunar-orbit 21-cm observations and is active in SKA development and HERA. He is actively hiring postdocs (PDRA posting live in 2025).
Prof. Figueroa-Feliciano leads Northwestern's experimental program in quantum sensing for particle physics. Key directions: (1) SuperCDMS SNOLAB — Northwestern's NU's role in the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search at SNOLAB (2 km underground in Canada), using ultra-pure Si and Ge crystals with superconducting TES sensors to detect low-mass dark matter (particles below the proton mass); in March 2026 the experiment reached operating temperature (<10 mK), transitioning to detector calibration for the first ever dark matter search at the site; (2) NEXUS facility at Fermilab: Northwestern-built test facility led by Figueroa-Feliciano for SuperCDMS detector calibration and for measuring how ionizing radiation affects superconducting qubits (published fall 2025); (3) Qubit-based quantum sensing: developing HVeV R&D devices with <1 eV resolution and qubit parity-detection techniques for eV-scale and sub-eV dark matter detection. Associate Vice President for Research at Northwestern; INQUIRE Executive Committee. Joint appointment at Fermilab.
Hamilton heads the Quantum Electronic Devices group and is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre for Future Low Energy Electronics (FLEET). The group works on hole-based quantum devices in GaAs and germanium, where strong spin-orbit coupling allows all-electrical spin control, and on topological materials and one-dimensional transport. The measurements are millikelvin transport and noise spectroscopy of very small signals in mesoscopic devices. 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 link is indirect — this is charge/spin transport rather than magnetometry — but the group's expertise in low-noise cryogenic measurement and in spin-orbit-mediated electrical spin control is directly transferable to electrically-detected spin sensing, which is the main alternative to the optical readout that limits pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensembles. Borderline inclusion; kept under the inclusive rubric.
NON-PREFERRED (astronomy pivot, kept for review). Hewitt builds and operates low-frequency radio interferometers (HERA, MWA) to detect the redshifted 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization; the sensors are large radio antenna arrays rather than quantum sensors, so this is a borderline astro-instrumentation inclusion.