Prof. Kumar has devoted more than four decades to innovative breast cancer research and academic leadership, serving on the faculties of leading medical schools, universities, and comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His academic journey began with a master’s degree in chemistry from Bareilly College in 1976, followed by graduate training at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi in 1984. In January 1986, he relocated to New York City to pursue advanced cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Over a distinguished 40-year career, Prof. Kumar has held a wide range of academic and leadership roles, including faculty member, tenured professor, endowed distinguished professor, department vice-chair and chair, endowed chair, and senior research leader. He has also served as the DBT Government of India National Chair in Cancer Research and as a Distinguished Professor.

Prof. Kumar has made seminal conceptual, mechanistic, and translational contributions to cancer biology, particularly in the areas of epidermal growth factor receptors, kinases, and gene regulation. Notably, during his collaboration with the late Prof. John Mendelsohn, inventor of cetuximab, his research provided critical insights into the mechanisms of action of the monoclonal antibodies C225 (anti-EGFR) and 4D5 (anti-HER2)—later humanized and developed into Cetuximab and Herceptin, respectively. His laboratory has also discovered, cloned, and characterized approximately 20 genes and established the PAK and MTA families of molecules as integral components of cancer research. Collectively, his work has opened new research directions, identified novel therapeutic targets, and served as a training platform for 67 students, postdoctoral fellows, and physician-scientists, many of whom now hold faculty and leadership positions in the United States, India, China, Italy, and other countries.

Prof. Kumar has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed research articles and invited reviews, edited nine scholarly books or volumes, delivered more than 300 invited lectures, and served on the editorial boards of leading cancer research journals for nearly 25 years. Over the past five years, Stanford University data have consistently ranked him among the top 0.5% of scientists worldwide in oncology and carcinogenesis.

He has contributed extensively to the scientific peer-review process, serving on nearly 100 national and international funding review panels over more than three decades. These include the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the Veterans Administration in the United States; multiple international governmental funding agencies; DBT–Wellcome Trust; India–France and India–Germany bilateral funding programs; major breast cancer foundations; and national initiatives such as the Indian National Breast Cancer Genome Project and the Making Cancer Care Affordable Project.

Prof. Kumar’s career honors include the 1995 Outstanding Investigator Award (Hinkle Society, Penn State College of Medicine); the 2004 Dallas/Fort Worth Living Legend Faculty Achievement Award (MD Anderson Cancer Center); the 2004 Norman Brinker Award for Research Excellence; the 2006 Ranbaxy (Sun Pharma) Research Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences; and the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research.

In 2023, Prof. Kumar founded the Breast Cancer in Young Women Foundation, the first of its kind worldwide, focusing on the unique medical and other challenges faced by young women with breast cancer. In 2024, the Foundation launched the Journal of Young Women’s Breast Cancer & Health, the first international journal dedicated to this field. In 2025, it started the Youth Council for Breast Health (YCBH), a global effort to raise awareness of breast health and cancer risk factors on educational campuses.