Our People

This page lists current group members, we also have many past group members.

Group Leader

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  Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop

  Halina obtained her PhD degree from the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. She also holds a Docent Degree from the same University. Halina moved to the University of Queensland in 1989 where she established a large research team actively involved in several areas of laser science. Her research interests are in laser physics, laser micromanipulation, quantum atom optics, linear and nonlinear high resolution laser spectroscopy, and nano-optics. She is one of the originators of laser enhanced ionisation spectroscopy, and is internationally recognised for her work in laser micromanipulation with emphases on transfer of optical angular momentum of light and quantum atom optics. She has over two hundred and seventy publications in international peer refereed journals, several book chapters and a large number of international conference contributions and many plenary, keynote and invited talks. Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop is currently Director of Quantum Science Laboratory at the University of Queensland. She is also a program manager of one of the scientific programs of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.

Academics

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  Itia A. Favre-Bulle

  Itia completed her Engineering and Master degrees at TPS and University of Strasbourg, France. She completed her PhD in the group. Her research involve the study of light scattering, optical manipulation of complexe biological systems and micromachines. During her PhD, she developed and combined various optical techniques and systems. She performed arbitrary illumination of Zebrafish brain with holographic illumination using Spatial Light Modulators (SLM) for optogenetics. She also performed the optical micromanipulation of otolith (ear-stones) in-vivo deep in brain tissue to simulate acceleration. This involved the combination of fluorescent imaging with SPIM microscopy (Selective Planar illumination Microscopy) and behavioural imaging.

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  Alexander B. Stilgoe

  Alex completed his undergraduate degree in physics at UQ looking at use of accousto-optic modulators applied to microscopic control and dynamics of microparticles. His PhD research focuses on the dynamics of microscopic world and how these objects couple to fields at these random, but classical, size scales. He has done a large amount of computational work on the interaction of complex electromagnetic fields with microscopic particles, e.g. multiple beams under different conditions. Interests in the rest of the world of physics include the philosophy of physics and trying to come up with simple but complete views of the universe through physics (though not in the formal logic sense). Outside of intellectual pursuits his hobbies include tennis (though not for a while), computer games, and construction of models.

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  Timo Nieminen

  Timo received his PhD from The University of Queensland in 1996. He is native Queenslander. He is currently a lecturer at UQ concentrating on Biophotonics and advanced Electromagnetic Theory. His major research interests include optically-driven micromachines and microtools, Theory of optical tweezers, Computational modelling of optical tweezers. He has published extensively on optical tweezers and angular momentum of light.

PhD Students

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  Declan Armstrong

  Declan completed his honours project with our group and is currently completing a summer project extending some of the work he started. He has been exploring the motility of E coli using optical trapping and plans to publish his work later this year.

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  Isaac Lenton

  Isaac is currently doing his PhD in the group, with interests in computational and experimental physics. The plan for his project is to look at different computational methods for calculating optical and acoustic forces and to use these tools to develop new experimental methods for measuring properties of swimming organisms. He is interested in optical and acoustic trapping, micro-fabrication and interesting computational methods and architectures.

Undergraduate Students

• Marissa Riggs

  Marissa is currently volunteering with our group, working in our lab and learning about optical tweezers systems.

• Mark Watson

  Mark has worked with the group on a couple of projects exploring biological systems using optical tweezers and advanced imaging techniques.

• Tamera Summerill

  Tamera is currently working on a project for large area high speed particle tracking.

Summer Students

• Connor Bennett

  Connor is working with Timo Nieminen and Isaac Lenton on a project exploring the Rayleigh Hypothesis using discrete dipole approximation (DDA) and T-matrix simulations.

• Lachlan Hamilton

  Lachlan is working with Timo Nieminen and Isaac Lenton exploring the potential applications of Machine Learning for optical tweezers experiments.

• Lauren McQueen

  Lauren is working with Timo Nieminen and Isaac Lenton exploring the potential applications of Machine Learning for optical tweezers experiments.

• Ling Xu

  Ling is working with Timo Nieminen and Isaac Lenton exploring extending the current capabilities of optical tweezers simulation with Machine Learning.

• Oscar Smee

  Oscar is working with Timo Nieminen and Isaac Lenton exploring the potential applications of Machine Learning for optical tweezers experiments.

Visiting Students

• Benjarat Ngansalung (2020)

  Working with optical tweezers and vaterite particles.

• Nahatai Lumlerd (2020)

  Working with optical tweezers and vaterite particles.