Meet our leadership team

Daniel Shaddock is also a Professor in Physics at the Australian National University. His research focuses on precision measurements using advanced digital signal processing. Prof Shaddock led Australia’s involvement in GRACE Follow-on, a satellite mission launched on May 22, 2018 to track the Earth’s water movement. Prior to this work Daniel was a Director’s Fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he served as NASA’s Interferometer Architect for the LISA mission. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and his publications have been cited over 20,000 times. Daniel was a co-author on the paper announcing the observation of gravitational waves, an achievement that was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Danielle received a Ph.D. in Physics from the Australian National University for developing FPGA algorithms and instrumentation for satellite-based laser ranging systems. Previously she was a Senior Research Scientist at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto where she worked on interferometric imaging and metrology systems. Danielle leads US operations, strategy, and partnerships.

David received a Ph.D. in Physics from The Australian National University in 2009 before taking on a role as a research fellow at Nikhef, the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics in the Netherlands. At Nikhef, David led the RF spatial wave-front sensing R&D efforts for the Advanced Virgo Detector and was in charge of the site and infrastructure definition for the Einstein Telescope. David carries responsibility for all hardware R&D, product manufacturing, quality assurance and compliance for Liquid Instruments' hardware products.

Paul earned his Ph.D. in experimental quantum physics at the Australian National University in 2012, before moving to Germany to take up an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for quantum optics in Garching. His research has spanned a range of fields across physics and precision measurement, including ultracold quantum gases, atom interferometry, precision gravimetry, dark matter, cavity quantum electrodynamics and gravitational wave detection. Paul has co-authored over 100 journal articles and was a member of the Nobel-Prize-winning team that made the first detection of gravitational waves from a pair of colliding black holes in 2016. At Liquid Instruments, Paul is responsible for designing the instruments and user interfaces that provide scientists and engineers with industry-leading usability and features.

Ben graduated with a degree in software engineering before beginning a Ph.D in Computer Science where his research centered on developing verifiable and radiation tolerant avionics for unmanned aerial vehicles. Ben gained valuable experience managing highly-technical software projects while working in the defense industry before discovering a passion for field-programmable gate-arrays and embedded software development. Ben is responsible for the design of the system architecture, device firmware and the quality practices of the software team.

After studying Physics, Tarquin Ralph worked building online banking systems before becoming the Marketing Manager of an Australian bank where he completed his MBA. He then spent time at two large international Advertising Agencies as Strategy Director. In the early nineties he moved to Canberra and into Management Consulting, first as a partner in Accenture and then as Managing Partner, Federal Government for Deloitte. He focused on change management and large scale program management, delivering or quality assuring 29 large Government programs, two of which were over half a billion dollars in size. In 2007 he established his own consulting company which specialises in bringing large consulting disciplines to mid-sized government clients. This firm still operates today. As his clients started to retire, he decided to return to university to take a PhD as a part of Daniel Shaddock’s group. His particular focus was the spatial modulation of laser light using digital interferometry to optimise transmission through a cavity. He is a founder of Liquid Instruments and an early board member and continues to offer a range of business advice.

Accomplished hands-on finance leader with proven track record in driving financial and operational performance. Providing strategic business partnership in formulating and executing growth initiatives. Building innovative organizations and delivering on financial results to increase shareholders value. Proactively anticipating needs and problem solving. Continually supporting and driving key initiatives and goals. Strengths include the ability to organize, meeting deadlines, and multitasking. Proficient in all areas of finance, including financial planning & analysis, general ledger, accounting research, audit and contract interpretation.

Ben Nizette currently serves as Director of Product at Liquid Instruments, the leader in precision software-defined instrumentation, revolutionizing the way that students, scientists, and engineers learn, discover, and create. In his role at Liquid Instruments, Ben spearheaded the Moku:Go project, delivering the company’s first consumer product with a focus on education at an accessible price point. The first-ever engineer hired at Liquid Instruments, Ben is fueled by a deep passion for technology, and hopes to remove some of the fear and intimidation around the core equipment used in the test and measurement field every day.