Sergey T. Surzhikov is an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is the director of the Institute for Problems in Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is head and professor of the Physical and Chemical Mechanics Department, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He is one of the foremost research scientists in thermal radiation and he is active in basic research programs with the European Space Agency. Professor Surzhikov is the author of more than six hundred scientific works and fifteen books.