Victor Acosta

Victor Acosta [CV, Google Scholar] is an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM). His current research interests include quantum sensing with diamond NV centers, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, bio-magnetic imaging, super-resolution microscopy, and precision measurement.

Victor did his PhD research in Dmitry Budker's AMO group in the UC Berkeley Physics dept, graduating in 2011. He spent his first 3 years working on atomic and molecular physics related to vapor cell magnetometry and then 3 more years studying the fundamental physics of diamond NV centers to develop better protocols and methods for quantum sensing. 

From 2011-2013, Victor was a postdoc in Charles Santori and Ray Beausoleil's group at HP Labs. He performed quantum optics experiments with diamond NV centers and other semiconductor platforms. In particular he coupled NV centers to optical microcavities to form integrated photonic circuits for quantum information processing and sensing.

From 2013-2015, Victor was a research scientist at Google Life Sciences (now Verily), where he worked on nanoparticle-based molecular imaging approaches and computational microscopy for early detection of disease.

In Fall 2015, Victor began as an Assistant Professor at UNM in the Dept. of Physics & Astronomy and CHTM. Since Summer 2021, he has been an Associate Professor with the same affiliations. In 2025 he was awarded the title Regents Lecturer.

Download PhD thesis, Optical Magnetometry with Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond (2011).

Pre-publication version of book chapter-- Cambridge Press, "Optical Magnetometry" (Editors Budker, Jackson-Kimball):

Chapter 8: Optical Magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy centers.   Appendices