Vsevolod Y. Polotsky is a professor and the Vice-Chair of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at George Washington University. He earned his MD and Ph.D. at the Pavlov First State Medical University of St. Petersburg in 1984 and 1990, respectively. He is a world-renowned expert in animal models of obstructive sleep apnea and metabolic complications of sleep apnea. His research interests include hypoxia, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, and he is currently researching the chemo-genetic manipulation of the innervation of upper airway musculature with a goal of developing gene therapy for obstructive sleep apnea. He is also a former chair of the American Thoracic Society Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology Assembly. He conducts sleep and breathing research at the Polotsky Research Lab.