Dr. Vishal Sharma is presently working as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Forensic Science & Criminology, Faculty of Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. He currently heads the Institute at Panjab University. He has obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physics from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India and Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, India. He is the recipient of DAE Young Scientist Research Award in 2011. Recently he has been conferred the best researcher award by Panjab University under Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence (PURSE), DST Govt. of India grant and Dr. P.D. Sethi National Award in 2018. He is the author of more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers, six book chapters and three books as editor. His current research focus is in the field of Material Science and includes the synthesis of smart materials for different applications, nanophosphors, hydrogels, sensors (drug sensing, fingermark sensing).