Prof. Vikram Vakharia acted as WSV Vice President-North America (2022-2024). He is a molecular virologist in the department of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Baltimore County. He has focused his career on agriculturally important viral pathogens of poultry and fish and developed technologies for diagnosis and control of viral infections. His discoveries of novel methods to generate virus-like particles and viruses from cloned DNAs of avian and aquatic birnaviruses and fish rhabdoviruses have led to fundamental knowledge of viral pathogenesis and new ways to design vaccines and vaccination strategies, resulting in 16 U.S. and 27 International patents. During his tenure, Prof. Vakharia has authored or co-authored over 130 scientific papers in refereed journals, proceedings or books and published over 140 abstracts and given over 60 seminars/invited lectures at national and international scientific meetings. He has garnered several grants/contracts as the principal investigator and served on national panels of federal agencies as a reviewer in animal health and biotechnology areas. Prof. Vakharia has mentored a large number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, many of whom have gone on to become research scientists in big pharmaceutical companies and professors in developed countries around the world. Prof. Vakharia is the recipient of an honorary degree from the National University of San Marcos and serving as a member in the Birnavirus Study section of International Congress for Taxonomy of Viruses since 2000.