Professor Igor Ushakov graduated from Moscow Technical University (Moscow Aviation Institute), Electronics School, Department of Self-Controlled Surface-to-Air Missiles in 1958. In 1963 he earned his Ph.D. in Electronics, and in 1968 was awarded a Dr.Sc. (Doctor habilitatus) degree.

He has been working for over 40 years in industrial companies of the former Soviet Union and, later, in American companies as an employee and a consultant. Simultaneously, during that time he has headed departments at such prestigious Russian educational centers as Moscow Energy Institute and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (a Russian analogue to Massachusetts Institute of Technology) as well as held professorships (1989–2000) at American universities such as George Washington University, George Mason University, and the University of California at San Diego.

He is the author of about 30 monographs and over 300 scientific papers published in prestigious national and international scientific and engineering journals. He has also published eight books of prose, lyrics, and poems in Russian.