Janusz Pętkowski is an astrobiologist affiliated with the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Faculty of Environmental Engineering at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. Janusz is a Deputy PI on the MIT-Morning Star Missions to Venus and the Deputy PI of the Science and Instrument Team for the Rocket Lab mission to Venus – the first private interplanetary space mission. He is interested in biosignature gases, theoretical biochemistry and 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.