Recent funding success for EQUS members

Congratulations to EQUS members Glen Harris, Maxim Goryachev, Ben McAllister, Chris Baker, Mike Tobar, Arkady Fedorov, David Gozzard, Xanthe Croot, Nathan Langford, Elizabeth Marcellina, Kun Zuo and Peter Jacobson on their recent ARC grant success!

Research Fellows Dr Glen Harris and Dr Chris Baker, Associate Investigator Dr Ben McAllister, and Chief Investigators Dr Maxim Goryachev, Prof. Mike Tobar and A/Prof. Arkady Fedorov—along with A/Prof. Matthew Dolan, Dr Peter Cox, Prof. Elisabetta Barberio, Prof. Darren Croton and Dr Michelle Dunn—were awarded a LIEF (Linkage, Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities) grant to estabilish the Cryogenic Experimental Laboratory for Low-background Australian Research (CELLAR), including the purchase of two dilution fridges.  This project aims to build an open-access cryogenic facility in the underground physics laboratory in Stawell, Victoria, enabling ultra-precise experiments for fundamental science and emerging quantum technologies.  This grant was facilitated by an EQUS Collaboration Grant awarded to Ben McAllister and Glen Harris in 2022.

Associate Investigator Dr David Gozzard was awarded a DECRA (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award) to develop a quantum telescope for extremely high-resolution imaging.  This project will combine signal stabilisation technology with recent developments in quantum sensors to link optical telescopes separated by hundreds of kilometres, enabling imaging with resolution more than 20 times better than any existing telescope.

Associate Investigator Dr Xanthe Croot was awarded a DECRA to build superconducting circuits for error-resilient quantum computers.  This project aims to build a new class of intrinsically error-resilient quantum bits, using superconducting and hybrid superconducting circuits, to improve the performance of modern quantum processors.

Xanthe was also part of a successful LIEF grant, along with Associate Investigator A/Prof. Nathan Langford, and Research Fellows Dr Elizaeth Marcellina and Dr Kun Zuo, and Dr Maja Cassidy, A/Prof. Jarryd Pla, Prof. Andrea Morello, Prof. Alexander Hamilton, Dr Xi (Forest) Zhu and Dr Emma Mitchell.  This grant will enable the establishment of a multi-user, fast-turn-around cryogenic characterisation facility for microwave superconducting quantum technologies, including the purchase of a dilution fridge.  The new facility will allow for rapid optimisation of devices and components prior to integration into a larger quantum system, further boosting Australia’s efforts to build a commercially scalable quantum computer.

Finally, Associate Investigator Dr Peter Jacobson—along with Dr Xiuwen Zhou and Professor Leonhard Grill—was awarded a Discovery Project on atomic-scale engineering of bioactive organic molecules on surfaces.  This interdisciplinary project aims to synthesise and couple fundamental molecules, and to reveal molecular rearrangement pathways, using scanning probe microscopy.