Boris obtained his MSc at Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1981 and began his career at the Moscow Institute of Geosystems. His early work included numerical analysis of NMR signals, application of pattern recognition to direct detection of hydrocarbons from seismic reflection data and poroelasticity. The latter subject became Boris’s long-term obsession. His first steps in this area were focused on quantification of dispersion and attenuation due to mesoscopic flow in thinly layered poroelastic systems, which formed Boris’s PhD thesis (1988).

In 1990s, after visiting research appointments at University of Karlsruhe (Germany), Birkbeck College and Elf Geoscience Research Centre (both in London), Boris joined the Geophysical Institute of Israel, where he combined his continued interest in poroelasticity with development and application of multi-focusing imaging.

In 2001 Boris was appointed Professor of Geophysics at Curtin University (under a joint appointment with CSIRO), where his research expanded into a large variety of rock physics topics, such as effective stress laws, stress dependency of rock properties and solid/fluid layered systems. At the same time, he continued to work on the topic of wave-induced fluid flow, studying such systems as patchy saturation; flow between pores and fractures; squirt flow; and heavy oil rocks. He has also collaborated with colleagues who specialise in seismic data processing and time-lapse analysis. This collaboration led to a number of interesting studies, such as development of new algorithms for estimation of azimuthal anisotropy from vertical seismic profiles and modelling the seismic time-lapse response of CO2 injected into a reservoir rock.

At Curtin University Boris was Head of Department of Exploration Geophysics (2010-2015) and since 2004 Director of the Curtin Reservoir Geophysics Consortium. In December 2019 he received an honorary title of John Curtin Distinguished Professor and was appointed Director of the newly formed Centre for Exploration Geophysics. In 2019 he was Society of Exploration Geophysics Honorary Lecturer for the Asia-Pacific Region. Boris has served on editorial boards of Geophysics, Journal of Seismic Exploration and Wave Motion. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and has over 100 journal publications.