Vijay Kumar Pal has a Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Barkatullah, Bhopal, India, and a Master's in Biotechnology from Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer, India. His Master's thesis was entitled "Cloning and expression of anti-CHIKV Subunit Vaccine E2-CH3-CT in E.coli" where his objectives were to design the gene from mouse IgM antibody and further clone and express them in BL21, which can facilitate as the anti-CHIKV agent. Afterward, he joined the group of Prof. G.S. Prasad (MTCC, CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, India) as Project Fellow working on microbial phylogenic taxonomy and isolation and purification of antimicrobial peptides from novel microbial species. 

In 2022, He received his Ph.D. in supramolecular chemistry from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology, IISER, Mohali, India, under the supervision of Dr. Sangita Roy. His thesis was entitled "Designing Biomolecular Hydrogel Scaffolds for Healthcare Applications."  

Before Joining i3s, he was at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (CNRS), University of Strasbourg, France, in the team of Prof. Alberto Bianco ("Therapeutic multifunctional carbon and 2D nanomaterials") under the supervision of Dr. Cecilia Menard Moyon as a postdoctoral fellow. There he worked on peptide cyclization and their controlled self-assembly approach for therapeutic applications.

With an interdisciplinary background, Vijay's areas of expertise include peptide synthesis, functionalization and characterization, self-assembly, molecular hydrogels, peptide cyclization, tissue engineering, microbiology, and molecular biology.

Currently, he is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in the Molecular Biomaterials group at i3s, Porto.