After bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical and polymer engineering, Vikas Mittal joined the Polymer Chemistry group of Professor U. W. Suter at the Department of Materials at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, Zurich. He there worked for his doctoral degree with a focus on surface chemistry and polymer nanocomposites. He also jointly worked with Professor M. Morbidelli at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences on the synthesis of functional polymer latex particles with thermally reversible behaviors. After completion of his doctoral research, he joined the Active and Intelligent Coatings section of Sun Chemical Group Europe in London. He later joined as Polymer Engineer at BASF Polymer Research in Ludwigshafen, Germany where he has been working to date as laboratory manager responsible for the physical analysis of organic and inorganic colloids.