JANUS Team Member Dr. Igor Polonsky Celebrates 10 Years

11/23/2025

Staff Scientist II Igor Polonsky, Ph.D. is celebrating 10 years with JANUS Research Group (JANUS).

Igor first joined JANUS through its acquisition of AER, where he started offering support for atmospheric radiative transfer theory and computation research. Since then, Igor has expanded his range of expertise in radiative transfer, progressing to longer and longer wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Today, Igor is an expert in shortwave radiative transfer, thermal infrared radiative transfer, microwave radiative transfer, and even active microwave propagation in the atmosphere as it relates to the signals of the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Igor is a pioneer in the evaluation of new instruments, new datasets, and pilot retrieval algorithms for those new instruments. Whenever JANUS is given a brand‑new dataset, Igor will take it and do a brilliant analysis of its performance characteristics. Igor received an Outstanding Team Achievement award in 2023 and a “Way‑to‑Go” award in 2024.

Outside of JANUS, Igor is an adept handyman, from car maintenance and repair to home improvement projects. You will often find him in the mountains with his wife, whether hiking near their home or on one of their frequent ski trips.

Please join all of us at JANUS in wishing Igor Polonsky a very happy 10th anniversary. While he continues to search for the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything (we all know the answer is 42 [“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Douglas Adams]), we can’t wait to see what exciting things Igor and JANUS accomplish together in the future.