Sunil Kumar Verma  Sunil Kumar Verma (born 28September 1974), is an Indian biologist and , a principal scientist at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India. Verma is primarily known for his contributions to the development of "universal primer technology", a first generation DNA barcoding method, that can identify any bird, fish, reptile or mammal from a small biological sample, and satisfy legal evidence requirements in a court of law. This technology has revitalised the field of wildlife forensics and is now routinely used across India to provide a species identification service in cases of wildlife crime. This approach of species identification is now known as "DNA barcoding" across the world. Verma received his D.Phil. in medical oncology from the University of Oxford, and has worked in the areas of signal transduction in cancer and on molecular biology applications in wildlife conservation. He is the recipient of several national awards, including the 2008 CSIR Technology Award, the 2009 NRDC Meritorious Invention Award and the 2009 BioAsia Innovation Award in recognition of his contribution to Indian science and technology. Verma was born in a small village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Verma grew up primarily in Tikri and up to the twelfth standard studied at the government school in Tikri. After completing his twelfth standard in the science group from this school in 1991, he attended the G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar to complete his Bachelor of Science in agriculture and animal husbandry. Verma started his research career at G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, where he worked on the DNA fingerprinting of Indian scented basmati rice for identification of duplicate accessions. In 1998, Verma was appointed as a scientist at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) where he continued his research on the DNA-based identification system, and in 1999, he received the Emerging Forensic Scientist Continental Award from the International Association of Forensic Sciences at the University of California, USA for his work on DNA microsatellite based identification of wild animals. In 2000, Verma was appointed as a scientist at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, where in 2001, he and Lalji Singh invented universal primer technology for wildlife identification, for which he later received a number of international patents, and several national awards including the CSIR Technology Award in 2008 (jointly conferred to Verma and Lalji Singh), the 2009 NRDC Award (jointly conferred on Verma and Singh) and the BioAsia Innovation Award in 2009.