Peter J. K. Wisoff

Peter J. K. Wisoff is the principal associate director of NIF and Photon Science. Wisoff came to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the fall of 2001 as a deputy associate project manager for systems engineering at the National Ignition Facility. In 2003, he became the associate project manager for small optical systems on NIF, which included responsibility for the front end of the laser and laser diagnostics. Prior to assuming the role of principal associate director he served as the principal deputy, managing the directorate operations team, which provides facility, information technology, environment, safety and health, security, and administrative services to the directorate. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1976, Wisoff began his graduate work on the development of short wavelength lasers at Stanford University as a National Science Foundation graduate fellow. Upon completing his master's and doctorate degrees at Stanford in 1986, Wisoff joined the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Rice University. Selected as an astronaut by NASA in January 1990, Wisoff is a veteran of four space shuttle flights. He conducted three spacewalks totaling almost 20 hours that included testing tools for the first Hubble Telescope repair mission, construction of the International Space Station, and the test flight of an astronaut jet pack. Wisoff has received a number of honors with NASA, including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2001) and four NASA Space Flight Medals (2000, 1997, 1994, and 1993).