Rafael Yanushevsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and received a B.S. degree in Mathematics and an M.S. degree, with honors, in Electromechanical Engineering from Kiev University and the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, respectively. He earned his Ph.D. in optimization of multivariable systems, in 1968 from the Institute of Control Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.

After emigrating to the United States in December 1987, he started teaching at the University of Maryland, first in the Department of Electrical Engineering, then in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He also taught at the University of the District of Columbia in the Department of Mathematics. Since 1999, Dr. Yanushevsky has been involved in projects related to the aerospace industry.