PREFERRED. Choi is a theorist working at the intersection of quantum information science and out-of-equilibrium many-body dynamics, and with experimental collaborators (Lukin group) he developed quantum-logic-enhanced protocols that let dense, interacting NV ensembles surpass the interaction-limited sensitivity bound for AC magnetometry. This directly extends the lineage of NV ensemble quantum sensing experiments (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry) that have driven ensemble magnetometers toward pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivities, by using engineered many-body Hamiltonians and quantum control rather than dilution alone.

Curmi is a structural and single-molecule biophysicist whose most-cited work is on the light-harvesting antenna proteins of cryptophyte algae, where he and collaborators reported long-lived electronic coherence at ambient temperature — one of the founding results of the quantum-biology field and still one of its most argued-over. His group determines the structures of these antenna complexes and engineers them, and separately works on protein-based molecular motors and on single-molecule fluorescence and FRET measurements of conformational dynamics. 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 — Curmi supplies the biological systems in which quantum coherence is actually claimed to matter; a pT/sqrt(Hz)-class spin sensor capable of watching radical-pair or exciton dynamics in situ would be aimed at exactly the questions his structures raise. Preferred attribute present: genuine quantum-biology substrate rather than a quantum-flavoured metaphor.

Research focuses on quantum dynamics and excited-state reactivity in biological and synthetic light-harvesting systems. Discovered long-lived quantum coherence in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes (FMO, 2007). Develops 2D electronic spectroscopy techniques to probe excitonic transport, open quantum systems, and photochemical reaction dynamics on femtosecond timescales. Director NSF QuBBE; co-director Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine.

Prof. Gaynor (Chemistry, joined summer 2023) develops cutting-edge ultrafast spectroscopy at the physics-chemistry frontier. Directions: (1) Attochemistry — new ultrafast laser spectroscopies operating on attosecond to femtosecond timescales to directly measure how electron spin and orbital motion couple to molecular geometry (spin-vibronic coupling) in chiral molecules and materials of interest for energy conversion and spintronics; (2) Multidimensional nonlinear spectroscopy (2D electronic spectroscopy, 2D vibrational) to track energy and charge transfer immediately after photoexcitation; (3) Instrumentation-first approach: building novel attosecond transient absorption and correlation spectroscopy apparatus from scratch, enabling entirely new observables (e.g., electron-nuclear and spin-orbital correlations). INQUIRE faculty affiliate. Beckman Young Investigator 2025 ($600k, 4 yrs); Packard Fellow 2025 ($875k, 5 yrs).

Hutchison works on molecular polaritonics: what happens to chemistry when molecular electronic or vibrational transitions are strongly coupled to a confined optical mode in a Fabry-Perot or plasmonic nanocavity. He was among the first to show that vibrational strong coupling modifies ground-state chemical reactivity, and the group continues to probe polariton-modified energy transfer, photochemistry and transport, alongside single-molecule spectroscopy and 2D-material photonics. 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 connection to quantum sensing is the cavity: the same Purcell and collective-coupling physics that concentrates optical density of states around a molecule is what is used to improve photon collection and readout fidelity in NV ensembles operating at pT/sqrt(Hz). This is fundamental light-matter physics with a clear nonclassical-state angle.

Kassal is the leading Australian theorist of quantum effects in light harvesting. He established the distinction between coherent processes and coherent states in photosynthesis — showing that under incoherent sunlight at steady state, wavelike motion per se does not enhance efficiency, while environment-assisted transport and supertransfer genuinely can — and has since developed a classification of the mechanisms by which coherence (excitonic, vibrational, or of the light field itself) can improve energy transport. He also pioneered quantum-computer algorithms for chemistry. A distinct and directly relevant thread is the theory of spectroscopy with non-classical light: what entangled or squeezed photons can reveal about molecular coherence that classical light cannot. 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 — his work is the theoretical counterpart to the quantum-biology ambitions of the NV community: where NV ensembles at pT/sqrt(Hz) try to detect the magnetic signatures of biological spin chemistry, Kassal asks what quantum coherence is actually doing in those systems and whether quantum light can interrogate it.

Lakhwani runs the Molecular Photophysics Group and is a chief investigator in ARC Exciton Science. The group works on strong light-matter coupling in organic semiconductors: forming exciton-polaritons in microcavities, driving them toward polariton lasing and condensation with electrically injected devices, and engineering host-guest energy funnelling to lower thresholds. A second thread is chiroptical spectroscopy — circular dichroism and circularly polarised luminescence of chiral organic films — which is a polarisation-resolved measurement of a very small differential signal. 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 — polaritonic quantum matter is a distinct route to non-classical states of light at room temperature, in contrast to the cryogenic or spin-based platforms that dominate pT/sqrt(Hz)-class sensing; the differential chiroptical measurements the group performs are, methodologically, small-signal detection problems of exactly the same type.

McCamey is, for a candidate coming from NV ensemble sensing, the single most methodologically adjacent PI at UNSW. His laboratory does optically and electrically detected magnetic resonance on spins that are not defects in diamond: photogenerated spin-correlated radical pairs, triplet excitons in organic semiconductors, singlet-fission intermediates, and molecular spin systems. The instrumentation is the same toolkit — pulsed EPR, ODMR, dynamical decoupling, relaxometry — applied to systems where the spin is created by light and reports on chemistry. He directs the UNSW node of ARC Exciton Science. 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 — his group runs precisely those pulse sequences (Hahn echo, DEER, relaxometry) on a different spin species, and radical-pair spin chemistry is one of the few plausible mechanisms by which biology could be genuinely quantum — which makes this a strong landing spot for someone wanting to keep the NV skill set but change the physical system. Preferred attributes present: sensitivity-limited spin measurement, quantum-biology relevance.

The Odom Group studies trapped molecular ions at millikelvin temperatures using radio-frequency ion traps. Key directions: (1) Controlled preparation and single-quantum-state readout of trapped molecular ions (e.g., AlH⁺, SiO⁺, N₂⁺) — combining laser cooling, blackbody-radiation-assisted state preparation, and fluorescence detection for single-molecule precision spectroscopy; (2) Search for time-variation of fundamental constants (electron-to-proton mass ratio, fine structure constant α) using molecular vibrational/rotational transitions as highly sensitive probes; (3) Quantum effects in sub-Kelvin chemistry — probing tunneling, orbiting resonances, and quantum state control of reactive collisions between cold molecules. Member of CFP Northwestern.

Quiney (currently Head of School) is a theorist of coherent imaging and relativistic atomic structure. His signature contribution is the theory of X-ray free-electron-laser imaging of single particles, including the modelling of radiation damage and ionisation dynamics during the pulse — the question of whether you can extract structure faster than you destroy it — plus phase-retrieval algorithms for coherent diffractive imaging and ptychography. He also works on relativistic quantum chemistry and atomic structure. 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 connection is methodological rather than physical: his group develops the inverse-problem and photon-budget theory that governs how much information can be pulled out of a shot-noise-limited measurement, which is the same limit that fixes pT/sqrt(Hz) performance in NV ensembles. Theory-first PI with strong coupling to experimental synchrotron/XFEL programmes.