Vijayalekshmi (Viji) Sarojini obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi specializing in Peptide Chemistry with Profs. P. Balaram and R. B. Rao which was followed by postdoctoral research in Linkoping University, Sweden; University of Leeds, UK and Texas A & M University, USA. She moved to the Southern Hemisphere in 2004, taking up a research position at one of the Crown Research Institutes funded by the New Zealand Government and worked on bioactive peptide solutions for bacterial diseases of plants. She joined the University of Auckland in 2006 where she currently holds the positon of Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and Deputy Director of the Centre for Green Chemical Science and leads a group of several PhD students and postdocs. Her research focusses on various problems at the Chemistry-Biology-Material Science interface. Her major research interest is in developing peptides as therapeutics and biomaterials.