Brief description of the main research: The general research interests concern glassy/amorphous materials for optics and electronics. The main focus is on oxide materials based on SiO2 and GeO2. The motivation for studying these materials is provided by the outstanding physical properties of glassy SiO2 and the key role it plays in a number of modern applications: low-loss optical fibers for communications, ultraviolet and high-power laser optics, insulating oxide layers in silicon-based microelectronics, radiation resistant optical glasses etc. Our work mainly concerns point defects in these materials, their structure, generation mechanisms and optical properties, their impact on practical applications and devices.