LumOptica Limited was founded in 2015 by Craig Stacey, Roy Clarke and Chris Stace. All three previously worked at BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre in Filton, UK. Following its closure the same year, they seized the opportunity to continue doing the thing they were passionate about: putting light to use, as the most powerful tool in the world! That motivation has never waned and through our business offerings it is our mission to use light to make the world a better and safer place.

We offer contract R&D and design services to assist clients who:

a) need subject matter knowledge and capability (a “virtual” optical engineering department), or

b) are resource-limited and need to outsource work to a trusted partner.

In addition to our contract services above, we are constantly innovating and developing technologies both independently and in collaboration with clients. This provides a perfectly symbiotic relationship, enabling us to offer the highest quality research and engineering and the most informed subject matter knowledge.

We have steadily grown since 2015 and now boast a highly qualified, experienced and friendly team, still motivated by the excitement and curiosity that led to the founding of the company.

CEO and Co-founder

Craig has over 23 years’ experience in photonics applications mainly in defence and security. After graduating from Southampton University in 1999 in Physics with Space Science, he joined the UK MOD’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), which latterly became QinetiQ, as a Scientific Officer. During this time, he undertook research into hollow optical waveguides and coherent fibre laser combining. He also completed a PhD in high power erbium doped fibre amplifiers during his time there, affiliated with Heriot-Watt University. In 2006 Craig joined BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre in Bristol and was a Principal Scientist from 2009 until 2015, leading research in both free-space and fibre optics and laser directed energy. In 2015 Craig co-founded LumOptica with the goal of providing value-adding expertise and capability to customers developing world-class technology, as well as leading game-changing innovations in-house. As CEO, Craig is responsible for setting and implementing the company strategy, stakeholder engagement and coordinating in-house technical innovation. He occasionally gets his hands dirty in the lab when he can!

Craig is a Chartered Engineer and in 2018 was elected Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

Lead Optical Physicist/Engineer

Adam is an experimental and computational physicist with over 20 years’ experience in ultrafast optics and high power lasers. Adam has a First Class degree in Physics from Imperial College London. Upon completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford in few-cycle optical and attosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) metrology, he built an attosecond laboratory and developed several complete space-time and waveform characterization methods. Adam then spent 10 years at the UK’s Central Laser Facility (CLF), initially in the Vulcan laser group before taking a senior scientific role in the Artemis laboratory. Adam worked on the numerical modelling and experimental implementation in a variety of ultrafast topics including: broadband optical parametric amplification, few-cycle pulse generation and characterization in the short-wave infrared, coherent diffraction imaging, and high harmonic generation in solids, as well as taking the lead role in the design and commissioning of a new XUV beamline. Working alongside scientific computing, Adam also pioneered the delivery of scientific and computational solutions for CLF’s Artemis group.

Adam joined LumOptica in October 2023, taking on a lead technical role, using his knowledge, experience and creativity in experimental and computational optics to support the rest of the LumOptica team and proposing novel solutions to demanding problems in optics.

Project Manager

Natalie has worked in project management since 2012 with most of her experience being in the IT domain, having worked for most of this time at Mitie PLC. She has delivered multiple projects of varying sizes and complexities, often in parallel. In her previous role, the types of projects she worked on included large scale API system integrations, implementation of company-wide upgraded telephony systems, the implementation of SaaS solutions along with numerous other application-based projects.

In June 2022, Natalie joined LumOptica assuming responsibility for management of projects and many aspects of company operations. She has written and implemented LumOptica’s project framework and is continuing to develop our Quality Management Systems. She is also increasing our social media presence whilst also undertaking key health and safety roles.

Senior Optical Research Engineer

Adam graduated with a First Class Honours Masters in Physics from The University of Nottingham. He joined us in May 2020 having spent eight years in research and product development roles at Dyson and Renishaw PLC, working on a diverse range of physical systems. These included the proposal and design of a novel system for particulate charge characterisation, and the development of next-generation optical metrology devices. Adam’s experience has principally been in the development and delivery of innovative products and prototype systems, with specialisms in test system development and hardware control using LabVIEW and statistical data analysis techniques from Six-Sigma black-belt training.

Since joining LumOptica Adam has worked on projects such as laser Doppler vibrometry, real-time image analysis and aerial object-tracking, and experimental demonstration of laser filamentation and its applications.

Optical Research Engineer

George graduated from the University of Bath with a First Class MPhys degree in physics in 2017. The wide range of physics and hands on lab work used in the development of laser systems motivated him to undertake a PhD at The Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde. During his PhD he worked on the development of novel wavelength vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs), focusing on novel semiconductor quantum well gain structures. His PhD work covered the semiconductor microfabrication of the ZnCdMgSe material system, numerical modelling of the gain structures and building proof-of-concept breadboard laser systems. Following his PhD, he undertook a one-year postdoctoral position, funded by the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, where he worked on the development of ultranarrow linewidth, reduced SWAP-C VECSELs for strontium optical clock applications.

Since joining LumOptica in 2022, George has been working on the development of advanced diagnostics and optical systems for high-energy laser tests, whilst being actively involved in development and evaluation studies relating to novel high power laser systems.

Optical Research Engineer

Nathan graduated from University of Liverpool in 2015 with a First Class degree in physics. He is a physicist and engineer with a decade of experience in the research and manufacture of high precision electromagnetic systems. This involved several years undertaking postgraduate research into high energy physics medical applications at the University of Manchester. Prior to that he worked at Laser Quantum on the manufacture of OEM laser systems for diverse applications. His primary skillsets include computational modelling, programming, and hands-on problem solving for the manufacture of complex devices.

Nathan joined LumOptica in March 2022 and has been working on numerical modelling of ultra short laser propagation through gaseous media, system performance evaluation for atmospheric laser beam propagation, and the design and development of novel beam combiner technology.

Optical Design Engineer

Chris has been an optical engineer for more than 30 years. Before that he studied nonlinear optical amplifiers for image processing at King’s College in London for his Doctorate. He has gathered considerable experience in the design and construction of optical and laser systems including optical image processors, free-space and fibre optic communications systems, camouflage and optical switches. Until 2015, Chris was Chief Optical Design Engineer at BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre in Filton, UK.

Co-founding LumOptica in 2015, Chris’ main technical role has been as optical designer using both the Zemax optical design package. He uses these tools to not only design optical components but also to simulate and troubleshoot the performance of existing optical systems. Chris is able to combine strong optical design know-how with practical hand-on abilities in the lab – an invaluable mix!