Kumar is the GAZNAT Chair of Advanced Separations and a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). His research group is developing novel routes to realize the nanoporous two-dimensional membranes with precise control on the nanopore size and functionality.  Kumar received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2005.  Following this, he joined the global R&D division of Procter & Gamble in Kobe, Japan, where he worked on product design. Kumar joined the group of Michael Tsapatsis at the University of Minnesota in 2008 pursuing a PhD degree in chemical engineering, where he synthesized highly crystalline zeolite nanosheets (Science 2011, Advanced Materials 2015).  He joined the Strano group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a postdoctoral researcher in 2014 where he studied the effect of nanoconfinement on the phase transition of fluids (Nature Nanotechnology 2017).  In 2016, Kumar joined EPFL and started his independent research group. Kumar is the recipient of several awards including North American Membrane Society Young Membrane Scientist Award (2018), AIChE Separations Division Graduate Student Research Award (2013), Sigma Xi Award (2013), University of Minnesota Doctoral Degree Fellowship (2012), Manudhane Best Undergraduate Student award (2005), IIT Bombay Institute Silver Medal (2005), etc.