Chris Barty named IEEE Fellow

Chris Barty, chief technology officer in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) NIF & Photon Science Directorate, has been named a 2017 fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to ultrahigh-intensity lasers and the advancement of X-ray and gamma-ray science.

The IEEE grade of fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. IEEE fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

“I have always been tremendously impressed by the quality and breadth of IEEE as an organization,” Barty said. “Their endeavors and publications span many fields of importance to work at LLNL and, as such, I feel extremely honored to be recognized by them with this distinction.”

Barty has served as the chief scientist for the Laboratory’s Laser Science and Technology program and was the architect and the first program director of the mission-based Photon Science and Applications program. He has published more than 200 manuscripts and presented more than 200 invited talks spanning topics that include lasers, optics, materials science, medicine, chemistry, engineering and physics.

He is chair of the International Committee on Ultrahigh-Intensity Lasers and previously was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America and the international optics and photonics society SPIE. He won the 2016 SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award for his work on ultrafast lasers and laser-based X-ray and gamma-ray science.