I was born in Voronezh, USSR, on August 9 1972 and lived there for 16 years. In 1988 went to Moscow where I spent the last year of the high school at Kolmogorov Special Boarding School for Physics and Mathematics at Moscow State University (aka "Internat #18").

I became a student at the Physics Department of Moscow State University in 1989 and got my M.S. in Astrophysics in 1995. I graduated "with honor" - the highest level of academic distinction in ex-USSR.

In 1995-1998 I was a graduate student at the Physics Department of Moscow State University. In 1996-1997 I was as DAAD fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. I got my Ph.D. in Astrophysics in December 1998 from Moscow State University, my scientific advisor was Prof. G.S. Bisnovatyi-Kogan.

In 1998 I became a permanent staff member at Moscow State University's Sternberg Astronomical Institute.

In 1999-2001 I was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, I was a member of High Energy Astrophysics Theory Group.

In 2001-2006 I was in Moscow working at Sternberg Astronomical Institute and lecturing at Moscow Sate University. During that time I also worked as German-Russian interpreter for various (mostly medical and chemical equipment) firms, and as a tutor for high school students on physics, mathematics, and German.

In 2006-2007 I was a research scientist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheba, Israel.

In 2007- 2011 I was a research scientist at Astronomy Department of University of California Berkeley.

Since December 2011 I have been at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, first as a Senior Fellow in the NASA Postdoctoral Program, and since December 2013 as a research scientist.