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.

Fleming pioneered two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy and used it to reveal long-lived quantum coherences in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes, work that reframed how energy transfer efficiency in natural and artificial light-harvesting systems is understood.

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.

Olaya-Castro leads theoretical research on quantum phenomena in biological systems. Research directions: (1) Quantum coherence in photosynthesis — open quantum systems theory for energy transfer in light-harvesting complexes, probing whether quantum coherence provides functional advantage; vibronic coupling models for chromophore-protein complexes; (2) Counting statistics and noise in exciton and charge transfer; (3) Quantum thermodynamics of biomolecular machines — efficiency limits and entropy production in molecular motors; (4) Non-classical features of electronic/vibrational dynamics in chromophores; (5) Connections between quantum information measures and biological function. Collaborates with Bain and Llorente-Garcia on joint experiment/theory biosensing projects. Theoretical work only — no experimental activity.

Scholes uses multidimensional ultrafast and coherence spectroscopies to probe wavepacket dynamics and quantum-mechanical phenomena in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes, cavity QED, and photo-activated chemistry, including his group's resolution of a decade-long controversy over long-lived coherent coupling in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex. His current work extends coherence spectroscopy to quantum information science and photobiomodulation, squarely fitting the fundamental light-physics/quantum-optics side of the filter.

Tempelaar develops theory and simulation methods (surface-hopping and vibronic exciton models) for two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy, explaining how vibronic coupling sustains excitonic coherence in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes such as the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex and LH2, and extending these ideas to singlet fission and organic-semiconductor aggregates. He is a faculty affiliate of Northwestern's Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering (INQUIRE).