Two LLNL scientists elected as 2026 Optica fellows

Optica recently elected 121 members from 23 countries to the society’s 2026 fellow class. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists Mark Henesian and Brent Stuart were among those honored by the scientific society.

Optica fellows are selected based on outstanding contributions to research, business, education, engineering and service to Optica and the optics and photonics community. The distinction is highly competitive — fellows can account for no more than 10 percent of Optica’s total membership.

The new fellows will be honored at Optica conferences and events throughout 2026.

Mark Henesian

Henesian was honored for “for pioneering advances in nonlinear optics, electro-optics and modeling codes enabling modern, large aperture, high-energy laser architectures for inertial confinement fusion.”

“This is a recognition of a career spanning over 32 years in large aperture inertial confinement fusion laser science (mostly) and nonlinear optics that has significantly contributed to the success of LLNL laser systems,” said Henesian. “I want to especially thank Jean-Michel DiNicola and my other friends, past and present, in the laser program who promoted my nomination and election as a fellow!”

Henesian joined LLNL in 1980 to fill the Lab’s need for laser scientists and experts in nonlinear optics. He retired from the Laboratory 32 years later in 2012, but can still be spotted onsite today as a visiting senior scientist.

Throughout his career, Henesian contributed countless advancements to the field of optics including a new spectroscopic technique, a new class of lasers based on super-radiant stimulated emission from optically pumped molecular sodium, a groundbreaking large-aperture optical switch, beam spatial shaping technology, target plane irradiance smoothing, and a crystal array that led to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) design that exists today and is used worldwide. He was a key member of the team that invented, modeled and optimized the NIF laser architecture.

“My time at LLNL has been stimulating,” said Henesian. “I worked aggressively to advance the state of the field, presented first-of-its-kind work at international conferences, collaborated with talented colleagues, and worked to ensure the success of the laser program at LLNL.”

Henesian also had impacts on national security beyond NIF. As part of the Strategic Defense Initiative — which aimed to develop a defense system to intercept and destroy incoming nuclear missiles — his team discovered a type of scattering that is a severe limitation to laser beam propagation in the atmosphere. With the Nova laser, he and his colleagues made the first determination of the nonlinear refractive index of air, argon and nitrogen using intensity-dependent polarization ellipse rotation.

Now, Henesian works on NIF performance, optical damage mitigation and nonlinear optics issues such as beam filamentation. He is excited about the enormous jumps in artificial intelligence tools, computing power and funding in fusion.

He advises early career scientists to work hard to advance their field.

“Take on the most challenging problems — be innovative. Invent solutions so that projects and LLNL can exceed our goals,” he said. “Work with the best and most capable of your colleagues. Respect their skills and talents and work to advance their careers, too.”

Brent Stuart

Stuart, the operations manager at LLNL’s Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF), was selected “for groundbreaking innovations in high-intensity laser design, modernization and operation of laser facilities, and exceptional contributions to short-pulse laser science and applications.”

At the beginning of his career at LLNL, Stuart was part of the team to achieve the first petawatt laser shot. Built to investigate the fast-ignition concept for inertial confinement fusion, experiments with this system discovered the first laser-generated proton beams and creation of antimatter.

“The Nova Petawatt only operated for three years, but its groundbreaking scientific output led to building new petawatt laser research facilities all around the world, with peak powers now reaching 10 petawatts,” said Stuart.

Along the way, he explored damage mechanisms in materials with short laser pulses, which led to work in materials processing that used the nature of short pulses to avoid collateral damage.

“It was really exciting to be part of the emergence of femtosecond laser machining as a viable industrial technology,” said Stuart. “We built a system in 1997 to cut metal for the Y-12 plant and another in 1999 to cut explosives at LLNL’s High Explosives Applications Facility. Applications and laser technology have both really grown since then, and now it’s a billion-dollar-a-year business.”

When a project in LLNL’s Z-Division came up, Stuart jumped at the chance. As part of an industry team, he led a LLNL group in building a laser system to conduct remote sensing in support of overseas troops. The result and impact, he said, was very satisfying.

After finishing that project, Stuart joined JLF — an intermediate-scale, institutional user facility that provides users with hands-on access, control over experimental operations and the ability to explore a range of scientific research areas.

“JLF is a place for anybody to come in, try things and work out issues before going on to a bigger facility,” said Stuart. “It’s also a great training ground for students and postdocs. It’s always fun to see the new concepts and measurements that are being investigated.”

At JLF, Stuart sees it as his mission to provide the laser pulses for users to do their experiments. Alongside former JLF director, Robert Cauble, he made the case for a refurbishment of the facility. That effort was completed in 2023 and included an entirely new laser bay that makes it easier to operate and maintain the facility and deliver high-quality shots.

“Our users invest a lot in terms of their time and travel, and we want to get them as many shots as we can, as much data as we can. That's the goal of the facility,” said Stuart.

But Stuart’s work goes beyond maintenance: he and his team are always looking for new ways to improve JLF.

“That's a really exciting part about working here: being able to add new capabilities,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of many amazing projects here at LLNL. Many thanks to everyone that I’ve worked with and to Optica for this recognition.”