Abstract: The National Ignition Facility, sited at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., is a 192-beam, 1.8-MJ (351 nm) laser designed to compress ~250 µg spheres of deuterium and tritium to thermonuclear ignition. Fuel compression is achieved through an ablative rocket drive mechanism where the outer wall of the fuel shell is ablatively removed by a 300 eV radiation field. The 300 eV field is produced through laser matter interactions at the wall of either a gold or uranium hohlraum surrounding the capsule. Obtaining ignition will depend on controlling several critical aspects of the implosion, including the amount of kinetic energy transferred to the fuel, the internal energy generated within the fuel, the symmetry of the implosion, as well as maintaining the hydrodynamic stability of the fuel as it compresses. Imaging diagnostics provide unique insight into the performance of these implosions, and the NIF has assembled a broad suite of imaging capability, utilizing both X-rays and neutrons to diagnose critical aspects of the implosion process. In this presentation I will review the basic motivation for the inertial confinement fusion experiments taking place at the NIF, as well as a description of the NIF laser and its diagnostic capability, with an emphasis on imaging. This work was performed for the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration and by the National Ignition Campaign partners: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics, General Atomics, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Other contributors include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Atomic Weapons Establishment, England; and Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique, France. Gary P. Grim received his B.S. in mathematics from California State University, Chico in 1985, followed by his M.S. in 1992 and Ph.D. in 199) in experimental physics from the University of California, Davis. Grim’s graduate studies were in the field of particle physics, where he studied rare charm mesons decays as a test of electro-weak interaction theory within the standard model of particle physics. During his postdoctoral research in 1995–1999, Grim switched research groups at Davis and was an active participant in the design and construction of several semiconductor-based particle tracking detectors aimed at hadron collider experiments. These efforts included the CDF experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and CMS experiment at CERN. During this time, Grim developed and tested the first data-driven pixel tracking telescope for use in high energy physics. In 2002, Grim joined the Physics Division staff at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. During his tenure at LANL, he has worked on a wide ranging set of projects and problems, including leading the design and construction of the National Ignition Facility neutron imaging diagnostic, as well as being a key player in the construction of a forward pixel detector for use at the PHENIX experiment at the RHIC facility sited at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Grim’s current efforts are focused on analyzing the data being produced by the NIF imaging diagnostics, as well as leading the development of new NIF diagnostic capabilities including the novel prompt-radiochemical assay techniques and gamma-ray imaging capabilities.