Schuessler combines optical frequency combs with cavity-enhanced and mid-IR spectroscopy for ultrasensitive trace-gas and isotopic detection, and runs ion-trap precision mass/laser spectroscopy of exotic species. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work is a comb-metrology counterpart to spin-based chemical sensing.

Tinney is an exoplanet hunter who builds the spectrographs he uses. He leads Veloce, the high-resolution, ultra-stable echelle spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope, whose entire purpose is to measure stellar radial velocities at the ~1 m/s level — a fractional wavelength shift of order 10^-9 — which requires obsessive control of thermal, mechanical and illumination systematics plus laser-comb or etalon wavelength calibration. He also works on brown dwarfs and on disentangling stellar activity from planetary signals. 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 — precision radial velocity is a frequency-metrology problem dressed as astronomy: like a pT/sqrt(Hz) magnetometer, the instrument's raw sensitivity was solved years ago and all remaining progress is in systematics and calibration. Good pivot target for a metrology-trained candidate.