About

Prior to his work in firearms design and manufacturing, founder Luke Williams spent 12 years as the Senior Opto-Mechanical Engineer of the Input Optics System of the Advanced LIGO Project at the University of Florida (https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/). At UF he lead a team of engineers in the design, procurement, fabrication, inventorying, shipping, clean room processing, assembly, and installation of all IO opto-mechanical components in the Advanced LIGO Ultra High Vacuum System. LIGO made the first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 when it detected the collision and merger of 2 black holes. As an author on the discovery, Luke is a co-winner of both the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the 2016 Optical Society of America Team Engineering Excellence Award. Three of the LIGO project founders were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery.

During his work on the LIGO Project, Luke took up hunting as a hobby and began dreaming up firearms that he wished he had, but didn't exist. Given his experience in design and fabrication of opto-mechanical instruments, it was a natural shift to designing and building a high performance pistol with a laboratory-quality, integral telescopic sight.

Outside of his work as at Orchard Arms, Luke is also the Director of Development and Daily Operations at Santuario Santa Fe (www.santuariosantafe.com), a biodiversity sanctuary and organic farm in Quindio, Colombia.