Janusz Pętkowski is an astrobiologist and a Research Affiliate in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Janusz is a Deputy PI on the MIT-Breakthrough Venus Life Finder Mission Concept Study. He is interested in biosignature gasses, theoretical biochemistry, and in research leading to finding life outside Earth.
Janusz defended his doctorate in biophysics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He got his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in biotechnology and molecular biology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Poland. He is one of the founding members of the Polish Astrobiological Society.