Alexander G. Sazontov was born in Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky), Russia, in 1952. He received the M.S. degree in physics from the Gorky State University in 1975 and the Ph.D. degree in geophysics from the Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Science in 1982.
He worked at the Radio Physical Research Institute, Gorky (1975-1977), where he performed research on statistical theory of strong and weak turbulence in a stratified ocean. Since 1982, he has been a Senior Research Scientist in the Division of Hydrophysics and Hydroacoustics of the Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Science, Nizhny Novgorod. In 1998, he became head of the Laboratory of Statistical Methods in Ocean Acoustics. His research interests are in physical oceanography, wave propagation and scattering in random media, and spatial-temporal signal processing. Since 1984, most of his research has been in underwater acoustic coherence at long ranges and its applications.