Tayyab Suratwala
Program Director, Optics &
Materials S&T
NIF & Photon Science
Tayyab Suratwala, program director for Optics and Materials Science & Technology (OMST), directs and oversees OMST operations, which include the optics supply for laser programs in the directorate, the NIF optics recycle loop, and the accompanying materials science & technology (including damage science and mitigation and optical fabrication).
Dr. Suratwala leads the directorate’s materials science & technology development, which underpin the ability of NIF & Photon Science to develop, operate, and apply some of the world’s most advanced laser systems to its National Security and Discovery Science missions.
He received his Ph.D. in materials science & engineering from the University of Arizona in 1996. During his 18-year career at LLNL, he has contributed to both optics and targets for NIF. He has been instrumental in developing the laser phosphate glass amplifiers, increasing the damage performance of fused silica optics, improving the quality and yield of target ablators and tents, increasing the ICF target fabrication rate, and more recently developing a low-cost finishing technique called convergent polishing.
In addition, he has performed extensive research in various fields including grinding and polishing, fracture behavior in glasses, slow crack growth, optical properties of glasses, sol-gel chemistry, and laser damage mitigation, resulting in more than 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Click here for a list of his publications.
