Professor Dr. Ashok Vaseashta is a senior academic leader, currently serving as Vice Provost of Research, Professor of Physics, and Senior Strategic Advisor providing leadership to promote and advance research initiatives and priorities. Earlier, he served as Director of Research at the Institute for Advanced Sciences Convergence (IASC) and International Clean Water Institute (ICWI) for NUARI, Professor of Physics and Physical Sciences, and Director of Research at the Nanomaterials Processing and Characterization Laboratories, and Graduate Program in Physical Sciences at Marshall University. His research interests focus on safety and security, viz. nanotechnology, unconventional warfare, sensors and sensors network, critical infrastructure analysis, technology foresight, scenario planning and alternative analysis, counter-terrorism, complex socio-technical system analysis, water contamination detection, remediation and monitoring, modeling and simulation, systems thinking, and knowledge management.

Dr. Vaseashta has a B.Sc., M.Sc., and M.Tech. in Physics and a Ph.D. from the Virginia Tech, VA. He has edited several books for Springer Publishing book series and serves on editorial board for several journals. He is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and facilitator and has held workshops in Europe, North America, and Asia. He has published extensively in the domains of nanotechnology and physical and cybersecurity.

He served on a rotation as a William C. Foster fellow to the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of State working with the Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism and Foreign Consequence Management program. He also served as a Franklin Fellow and strategic S&T advisor in the office of Verification and Transparency Technologies/Arms Verification and Control at the U.S. Department of State. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (FAPS), Institute of Nanotechnology (FIoN), and the New York Academy of Sciences (FNYAS). He was awarded a Gold Medal by the State Engineering University of Armenia for his contribution to nanotechnology.