Advanced Defense Systems Group

Solutions for our Defense Partners

In 2007, LPI started its Advanced Defense Systems Group. The group is dedicated to working with the US Department of Energy (DOE), NASA, DOD, and other agencies in the design and manufacture of state-of-the-art opto-mechanical and advanced integrated systems to solve a wide range of problems. The Group has experience in a diverse set of fields including: imaging (diffractive and geometrical optics), nonimaging optics, sensor technology, communication systems, electronics, computer control and simulations, large scale software development, custom opto-mechanical systems, advanced structural and thermal modeling and design (including dynamic effects), and  computer aided design.

The team is led by Dr. Ilya Agurok - Chief Optical Scientist (Imaging), with a distinguished career of more than 25 years and is a recognized expert in optical systems, theoretical and practical optics designs, testing, wavefront control, interferometry and hyperspectral imaging.  He has been the Principal Investigator for 19 projects for the US government. In the first project at LPI he developed the NASA “Hyperspectral Imager Tracker (HIT)” to follow debris that falls from the shuttle during either launch or landing. Dr. Agurok received his PhD in Optical Engineering in 1987 from the St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics. Prior to coming to the US (and becoming a citizen) he worked 14 years for LOMO and 4 years for ITMO.  He worked 12 years as a principal scientist at Physical Optics Corp. He has developed software for the IKD-110 automatic interferometer, developed automatic focusing night-vision goggles, an innovative Hartmann auto-focus sensor, software to transform a wide angle LED output into a tailored output, high-performance beam formers for solid state military shelter illumination, adaptive dazzler floodlights, adaptive light filtering with AOTF camera for automatic target detection and tracking, and an interferometric target tracking system for an inertial fusion reactor. Dr. Agurok is supported by a team of experts at LPI, including more than 10 PhDs in the field of optics..