Primary focus: immune engineering for vaccines and cancer immunotherapy. Quantum sensing relevance: co-authored 2025 fluorescent-protein spin qubit paper (Physics World Top-10) with Maurer and Awschalom, contributing protein engineering expertise to develop biological alternatives to NV centers. Collaborates on quantum biosensors for real-time monitoring of immune cell activity (Chan Zuckerberg Biohub). Primarily a collaboration gateway for NV biosensing rather than standalone quantum sensing PI.

Studies surface and interface chemistry of diamond and other materials, including the chemical functionalization and stabilization of near-surface NV and silicon-vacancy color centers used in diamond-based quantum sensors, in collaboration with the Choy group.

Krueger's chemistry group develops diamond and nanodiamond surface chemistry, functionalization and bioconjugation that make NV centres viable, shallow, coherent quantum sensors for chemical and biological targets - the materials-chemistry enabler for NV ensemble sensing. She co-leads Stuttgart's quantum-technologies profile. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work is enabled at the surface-chemistry level by this work.

Develops quantum sensing platforms at the biology interface. Core NV-center work: (1) widefield NV magnetic imaging of action potentials in neurons and cardiac tissue; (2) NV-based single-molecule NMR at 14 T resolving molecular structure with single-molecule sensitivity; (3) charge-sensitive shallow NV nanoprobes monitoring real-time cellular electrophysiology; (4) biocompatible diamond surface functionalization enabling multiplexed DNA microarray biosensing; (5) fluorescent-protein spin qubits as biological alternatives to diamond NV (2025 paper, Physics World Top-10 Breakthrough). Runs full NV stack: hot implantation, widefield and confocal ODMR, T1/T2/Hahn echo/DEER/Rabi, automated fitting pipelines. 2026 Sloan Fellow. PhD Lukin/Harvard; postdoc Chu/Stanford. Argonne joint appointment.

Prawer is the founding figure of Melbourne diamond science, spanning colour-centre quantum technology, diamond surface chemistry and — unusually — clinical translation. His group developed the nitrogen-doped ultrananocrystalline diamond electrode arrays used in the Australian diamond bionic eye, a hermetically sealed, chronically implantable retinal stimulator that has been through human implantation; that is a rare example of an exotic-materials sensing/stimulation technology carried into human trials. In parallel the group works on diamond surface termination and functionalisation for near-surface NV sensing, nanodiamond bioconjugation, and diamond as a radiation-hard detector material. 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 surface- and materials-engineering work is precisely what sets the standoff distance, and hence the achievable pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, of near-surface NV ensembles used for DEER and nanoscale NMR. Preferred attribute present: demonstrated human trials with a complex implanted technology.

Simpson runs the experimental quantum imaging and sensing laboratory at Melbourne and is the closest match at this institution to a bio-oriented NV sensing postdoc. Two active threads: (i) widefield NV magnetic and spin-relaxation imaging of living cells and tissue, including magnetic imaging of magnetotactic bacteria, cellular free radicals and paramagnetic ion transport, and quantum-probe imaging of neuronal activity; and (ii) engineering Australia's most sensitive diamond vector magnetometer with RMIT and Phasor Innovation, aimed at navigation, underground/undersea sensing and, explicitly, mapping magnetic signals of the human brain in unshielded environments. That second thread is a direct bid at bioelectromagnetism with a quantum sensor. 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 — Simpson's work is a continuation of exactly that lineage, pushing ensemble DEER/T1-relaxometry contrast mechanisms out of the physics lab and into cell biology and human-scale magnetoencephalography. Preferred attributes present: bioelectromagnetism, human-subject ambitions, sensitivity-limited (not fabrication-limited) programme. QUBIC investigator; recruits postdocs regularly.