Two LLNL researchers named to Optica’s 2024 class of senior members

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers Paul Armstrong and Brent Stuart have been named senior members of Optica. The professional society’s senior membership status recognizes members with more than 10 years of professional experience in optics or an optics-related field.

The 2024 class joins a distinguished group of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and innovators who have demonstrated exemplary professional accomplishments in optics and photonics. Click here to see the entire Optica 2023 class.

Paul Armstrong

Armstrong, an engineer in the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science Directorate, manages an effects laboratory in the Department of Defense Technologies program and investigates challenging problems in material science and laser-matter interaction.

“I feel fortunate to have spent my entire career at LLNL tackling difficult problems of national importance, supported by one of the best workforces around,” he said. “When you combine that with the opportunities afforded by Optica, amazing things happen. I am honored to have been selected as a senior member of such a respected professional society.”

Armstrong earned his bachelor's degree in Laser Optical Engineering Technology from the Oregon Institute of Technology and immediately joined LLNL. He began his career performing research in femtosecond lasers and their applications, including hardware-centric evolutionary algorithms and advanced control systems. He subsequently shifted focus to developing early concepts in inertial fusion energy drivers and other solid-state laser front-ends, such as the L3 HAPLS (High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System) now installed at ELI-Beamlines in the Czech Republic. Over his 30 years of work in photonics-related research, he has developed several novel instruments and processes, garnering multiple patents and three R&D100 awards. His current research concentrates on infrared imaging, spectroscopy and thermography.

Brent Stuart

Stuart, a staff scientist in the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, is the operations manager for the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF). He oversees all aspects of laser development and innovation at JLF. Recently, he led a large facility modernization effort for the facility, which resulted in multi-million-dollar investments by LLNL and the DOE Office of Science to redesign and rebuild the laser beamlines, power conditioning systems and diagnostics. The laser reopened for user experiments in 2023.

“I’m honored by this recognition, and thankful for all the exciting opportunities and amazing colleagues here at LLNL that made this award possible,” Stuart said.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Caltech and his Ph.D. in engineering/applied science from the University of California, Davis. After demonstrating a new ultraviolet laser based on the sulfur monoxide molecule for his thesis work, Stuart joined LLNL to work on the Nova petawatt laser, where he built up the front-end of the system and performed seminal investigations into the mechanisms of sub-picosecond laser ablation and materials processing applications.

Stuart also has delivered femtosecond machining systems to the Y-12 Plant and LLNL’s High Explosives Applications Facility; the trigger laser for the Dynamic Transmission Electron Microscope; and novel active remote-sensing systems. His leadership in laser design and operations led to many applications in particle acceleration, high-field laser-matter interactions, materials characterization, remote sensing and materials processing. Stuart has served on many major Optica conference program committees such as CLEO, Photonics West and Frontiers in Optics.