Join us for this QUBIC Seminar Series event.

Completing the Connect Initiative

Speakers: Dr Marita Rodriguez (UQ), Dr Sergey Kruk (UTS), Dr Benjamin Carey (UQ)
Date: Wednesday 18 June, 1pm – 2pm AEST
Zoom: Click here to join the seminar

Dr Marita Rodriguez (UQ): Authorship in Practice: Negotiating Credit in Interdisciplinary Science
Abstract
This session shares preliminary findings from an ethnographic project funded through the QUBIC Connect Initiative. The project examines authorship practices and interdisciplinary collaboration within QUBIC nodes, with a focus on how credit and recognition are negotiated in everyday research work. Based on interviews and observations conducted in labs in Wollongong and Melbourne, the study explores how formal guidelines around authorship interact with institutional hierarchies, strategic considerations, and unspoken norms. Special attention is given to the experiences of early-career researchers and the challenges of navigating authorship in environments shaped by precarity and uneven power dynamics.

Bio
Dr Maria Amelia Rodriguez is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland and a member of QUBIC. She works at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS), ethics, and interdisciplinary research. With a background in molecular biology and a PhD in the social studies of science, her work explores how scientific collaboration is organised and how practices of recognition—such as authorship—are negotiated in contemporary research environments.

Dr Sergey Kruk (UTS): Nanophotonics for quantum biotechnology
Sergey will cover two Connect Initiatives:
1. UTS-UQ initiative explores opportunities that nanophotonics brings to optical tweezers. Small birefringent particles trapped in an optical tweezer have become a delicate tool for measuring viscosity of the particle’s surrounding (such as viscosity of inner structures of a cell). The project explores opportunities to increase sensitivity of such measurements via concepts of Mie resonances and form birefringence. Preliminary data promises x10 improvement brought about by nanophotonics.
2. UTS-UoM initiative focuses on the enhancement and control of the emission of NV centres in diamonds via concepts of metasurfaces and bound states in the continuum. Preliminary data shows x100 better field confinement around the NV centres enabled by nanophotonics.

Bio
Dr. Sergey Kruk designs, fabricates, and performs optical diagnostics of nanoscale optical components – so small that thousands of them can fit within a cross-section of a hair. He graduated from the Belarusian State University and received PhD in Physics from ANU. Dr. Kruk diversified his experience as a Humboldt Fellow and a Marie-Curie Fellow at the University of Paderborn, Germany as well as ARC DECRA Fellowship at ANU before joining the ARC Centre of Excellence QUBIC, UTS. His research was recognized by the Australian Optical Society with Geoff Opat Prize, and by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics with Young Scientist Award.

Dr Benjamin Carey (UQ): Precision measurement of muscle-cell forces, bringing nanofabrication and quantum optics to cellular biology
Abstract
Precise measurements of biological processes—like muscle cell contraction—offer a powerful window into the biophysical mechanisms underlying cellular behaviour. They can reveal subtle force dynamics and help distinguish healthy from diseased function. While most studies examine the collective behaviour of many cells, force measurements at the level of a single muscle cell remains elusive and technically challenging.
Presented here is an ambitious QUBIC Connect collaboration between the University of Queensland and the University of Wollongong, focused on measuring contractile forces from individual muscle fibres. The project brings precision silicon microfabrication and optical cavity sensing into direct contact with cellular biology, enabling live muscle cells to be grown atop ultra-thin, freestanding silicon membranes. These membranes are mechanically coupled to integrated photonic cavities, together forming a high-sensitivity optomechanical resonator. This chip-scale platform allows precise mechanical readout with exceptional force sensitivity and high temporal resolution, offering a new window into the fast dynamics of single-cell contraction.
The longer-term vision is not only to read out cell-generated forces, but also to stimulate and control cells in situ via chemical cues delivered through integrated microfluidics. The platform could further enable coupling with motor neurons or other excitable cells, opening the door to reconstituted neuromuscular circuits on-chip.
This work, bridge quantum-limited mechanical sensing and live-cell biology, this tightly coordinated, interdisciplinary effort aims to expand what can be measured, manipulated, and ultimately understood about biological systems at the cellular scale.

Bio
Dr Benjamin Carey is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland and a member of QUBIC. His research focuses on quantum-enabled sensing and hybrid optomechanical systems for precision measurement. He works across sensor physics, magnetometry, and micro/nanofabrication, developing high-sensitivity platforms for applications ranging from fundamental physics to bioimaging. He earned his PhD from RMIT University and held a postdoctoral position at the University of Münster, where he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. His work combines materials engineering, photonics, and precision measurement to advance the next generation of chip-scale sensing technologies.