Dr. Tankala is Vice President of Fiber business at Nufern. Prior to joining Nufern he was Technical Manager at Lucent Specialty Fiber and a scientist with SpecTran Specialty Optics. Dr. Tankala also worked as a Research Associate at the Norton Company. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in Metals Science and Engineering. He received his B.E. in Metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Science and B. Sc. in Physics from Delhi University. He is a Member of Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, Member of Sensor and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee to the Department of Commerce and a Senior Member of SPIE.