AFRL physicist attains special recognition

  • Published
  • By Jeanne Dailey
  • Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate
Kirtland Air Force Base, NM --  The Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate here is proud to announce Dr. Venkata S.R. Gudimetla's elevation to senior member of the Optical Society of America.
More than 160 OSA members were selected for this designation--the first class of OSA members to achieve this new distinction.

Of the senior members selected, Dr. Gudimetla was one of only two United States Air Force individuals identified.

Dr. Gudimetla serves as senior research physicist of the AFRL's Directed Energy Directorate, and is assigned to their Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site, Maui, Hawaii. Dr. Guidimetla's senior member status was conferred in recognition of his theoretical and experimental contributions in the area of laser propagation through the atmosphere.

He received his doctorate of philosophy from Oregon Graduate Institute in 1982. He has published more than 30 papers in the topics of laser speckle, atmospheric turbulence, thermal blooming, active tracking, and related topics. He is AFRL's program manager and co-principal investigator for the multi-wavelength laser propagation experiments that were completed recently at 10,000 feet over a 90-mile path between Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii and the Air Force site atop the extinct volcano, Haleakala, on Maui, Hawaii.

The AFRL's Directed Energy Directorate is the United States Air Force's center of expertise in technologies required for high energy lasers, high power microwaves, high power millimeter waves and advanced optics. The directorate assesses potential applications and effects of systems using directed energy technologies, performs modeling and simulation, and manages space situational awareness data collection and reporting. It also conducts advanced technology research to support major directed energy applications such as counter electronics and laser systems on airplanes.