In 2024, a team of physicists in Gwangju used an ultra-intense laser to demonstrate a phenomenon that could reshape our understanding of environments near neutron stars and black holes. The scientist who led the experiment, Mohammad Mirzaie, is now a Korean citizen — one of 30 foreigners granted nationality this year through a special program for outstanding talent. Mirzaie, an Iranian-born senior research fellow at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), was approved for special naturalization in July in recognition of his contributions to basic science. He has lived in Korea since 2019 and as his children grew up here, what began as a research posting became a permanent home. "I wanted to take a step of becoming a Korean citizen and make a long-term commitment to the country where our family had established lives," he said in an interview with The Korea Times. The breakthrough that helped earn him citizenship was years in the making and far from a solo effort. Working with fellow physicists and laser experts, Mirzaie successfully demonstrated all-optical nonlinear Compton scattering