Bruno Van Wonterghem became commissioning manager of NIF in 2001 and operations manager in 2008. He has extensive experience in developing laser systems for plasma research in academia through work at the University of California, Irvine; the Max Planck Institute; and LLNL. He was manager of Beamlet Installation and Commissioning from 1992 to 1994, manager of Beamlet Experimental Operations from 1995 to 1998, and manager of NIF Startup Planning in 1998. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical physics at the University of Leuven in Belgium in 1987.