Steve Birrell received his BA in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and joined Hughes Aircraft Company in 1978 to develop early laser designators and Raman-shifted eye safe rangefinders.   After leaving Hughes in 1988, Steve spent a year developing a market leading, high-performance laser energy meter. 

In 1989, Steve moved to Bozeman to become Vice-president of Big Sky Laser (now Lumibird).  Steve was instrumental in the early development and growth of Big Sky Laser, before leaving in 1994 to start Quantum Composers.  In the past 27 years, Quantum Composers has become a leading supplier of high-performance digital pulse generators, compact lasers, laser micro-machining systems and specialty control instrumentation and pulse generators.