Ashok Vaseashta is CEO/CTO and Executive Director for research with the International Clean Water Institute in Virginia, USA. He also serves as a Professor at the Transylvania University of Brasov; Chaired Professor of Nanotechnology at the Ghitu Institute of Electrical Engineering and Nanotechnologies, Academy of Sciences of Moldova; Academician at Euro-Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Senior Strategic Research Advisor for several organizations. Inspired by nature and guided by societal necessities, he strives for technological innovations to address the global challenges of the 21st century. His research interests include CBRN defense, critical infrastructure safety, and security and environmental sustainability - all using nexus of advanced technological solution platforms. He is a scholar, visionary, strategist, and dedicated futurist providing strategic leadership to promote and advance research initiatives and priorities using data-driven decisions. He received Ph.D. from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA in 1990 followed by Kobe post-doctoral fellowship. Following his Ph.D., he served as a professor and researcher at Virginia Tech and Marshall University. He also served as the Director of Research at the Institute for Advanced Sciences Convergence and International Clean Water Institute for Norwich University Applied Research Institutes, Vice-Provost (Rector) for Research in South Carolina, Visiting Professor at the Riga Technical University, Latvia, 3 Nano-SAE Research Centre, University of Bucharest, Romania and Visiting Scientist at the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center of Nanoscale Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. He served the U.S. Department of State in two rotations, as strategic S&T advisor in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism, and U.S. diplomat. His research interests span nanotechnology, environmental/ecological science, and safety and security. Much of his work in nanotechnology has been on improving the understanding, design, and performance of nanofibers and sensors/detectors, mainly for applications such as wearable electronics, target drug delivery, detection of biomarkers, and toxicity of nano and xenobiotic materials. In the security arena, he has worked on counterterrorism, countering unconventional warfare and hybrid threats, critical-Infrastructure protection, biosecurity, dual-use research concerns, and mitigating hybrid threats including the weaponization of misinformation and fake news. In addition, he has made numerous contributions in environmental/ecological science including directing research for International Clean Water Institute, pollution monitoring, contamination detection and remediation, and sustainability through green nanotechnology. He is the author/editor of 11 books and has published over 300 articles in scientific journals, book chapters, and conferences. He serves on editorial boards of several international journals and is an active member of various professional organizations.