Alexander A. Kokhanovsky graduated from the Physical Department of the Belarussian State University, Minsk, Belarus, in 1983. He obtained a PhD degree in optical sciences from the Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus, in 1991. His PhD work was devoted to the development of analytical approximations for the radiative transfer characteristics of atmospheric aerosols and whitecaps. His habilitation work (Main Geophysical Observatory, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2011) was aimed at cloud and snow remote sensing from space. He has worked at several scientific research centers, such as the Institute of Physics (Minsk, Belarus, 1983-2004), Japanese Space Exploration Agency (Tokyo, Japan, 1996-1997), Clausthal Technical University (Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany, 1997-1998), Imperial College (London, UK, 1999-2000), University of Bremen (Bremen, Germany, 2001-2013), VITROCISET/TELESPAZIO Belgium and EUMETSAT (Darmstadt, Germany, 2013-2022). He is currently working at German Research Centre for Geosciences (Potsdam, Germany).