Vishal Saxena (Founder: UpWave) is a former lead optical scientist on Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Department of Defense (DoD, USA) and National Institute of Health (NIH) projects and was a faculty member for over 10 years at the University of Southern California. His professional career spans for over 20 years that includes founding of AppWave Inc, working in industry (Program Manager: Optimight, San Jose) and sub-contractor and lead scientist to federal agencies like National Institute of Health and Department of Defense. He was a recipient of prestigious Wright Foundation (USA) and Humboldt Foundation (Germany) awards. Vishal Saxena has a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics (Optoelectronics) from the University of Cambridge, UK.