I received my Ph.D. from the Main Astronomical Observatory of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (Kyiv, Ukraine), where I worked until 1995. My main research focus was the polarimetry of particulate surfaces, including both laboratory and theoretical studies. From 1994 to 1997, I was a Max Planck stipendiat at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy (now the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany), working on the polarimetry of cometary dust. In 1997, I accepted a position at the University of Florida, where I conducted laboratory measurements of light scattering by dust particles. Since 2004, I have been working at the University of Maryland, where I serve as the NASA PDS Small Bodies Node Archive Manager. Alongside my PDS responsibilities, I continue my research in the polarimetry of solar system small bodies and debris disks. I am the editor and co-author of the book Polarimetry of Stars and Planetary Systems (Cambridge University Press) and, since 2002, the editor and manager of the online Light-Scattering Newsletter (astro.umd.edu/~elsnews).