Dr. Jonathan Arenberg is currently Chief Mission Architect for Science and Robotic Exploration at Northrop Grumman. His work experience includes all phases of program and mission development, from early technology development, mission concepts, detailed design, test and verification, and integration and test. His last major program assignment was as Chief Engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope. In the last few years, Dr. Arenberg has led major mission studies for NASA and other government customers. He has been a principal major paradigm breaking concepts such as the Starshade, MODE lenses, and the OASIS mission based on an inflatable reflector. He is a creative and broad thinker, capable of addressing the most challenging problems with practical and effective solutions. In addition to optical systems experience from x-rays to THz systems, he is also familiar with laser systems and components.

Dr. Arenberg has a Bachelor of Science in Physics as well as a Master of Science and PhD in Engineering from UCLA. As a committed member of the scientific community, Dr. Arenberg is a long-serving California State Science Fair Judge, frequent public speaker, a referee for several journals, and a guest editor for several special journal issues. He is a Fellow of the international optics and photonics society, SPIE, for his contribution to astronomy and lasers. He is the author of over 210 conference presentations, papers, and book chapters, and holds 14 European and U.S. patents in a wide variety of areas of technology. Dr. Arenberg is also the co-author of a recent book on systems engineering for astronomy from SPIE press. In 2020, he was given the Professional Achievement Award from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.