Rate My Professor Prashant Kumar

Professor Prashant Kumar holds the position of Professor and Chair in Air Quality and Health in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Surrey. He is Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Founding Director of the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE). His academic journey began with a Diploma in Civil Engineering from Government Polytechnic Ghaziabad in 1995, followed by a B.E. in Civil Engineering from the Institution of Engineers, India in 2001, an M.Tech in Environmental Engineering and Management from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 2005 where he ranked first in his institute, and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge in 2008. He also earned a Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Surrey in 2010. Kumar joined the University of Surrey in 2009 as a Lecturer, advancing to Senior Lecturer in 2012, Reader in 2015, and Professor in 2017. He served as Deputy Director of Research for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2018 to 2021 and as Associate Dean (International) for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences from 2021 to 2023.

Kumar's research specializations encompass clean air engineering, air pollution's impacts on human health, and smart sustainable urban living. Key areas include urban air quality monitoring and modelling, airborne nano and ultrafine particles, exposure assessment and inequalities, indoor air quality, nature-based solutions such as green infrastructure for pollution and climate mitigation, transport emissions, and the energy-pollution nexus. Notable publications include 'Exposure of in-pram babies to airborne particles during morning drop-in and afternoon pick-up of school children' (2017), 'Indoor-outdoor concentrations of particulate matter in nine microenvironments of a mix-use commercial building in megacity Delhi' (2013), 'Particulate matter exposure from different heating stoves used in low-middle income homes' (2025), 'Weak and heterogeneous ENSO teleconnections to Brazilian soybean yields: a municipal-to-national assessment' (2026), and 'Quantifying the co-benefits of a tropical urban park in São Paulo through integrated mobile and stationary monitoring' (2026). His contributions have earned him the Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award from the California Air Resources Board in 2024 for international leadership, recognition as a Top 1% Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate in 2022 and 2023, the University of Surrey Vice-Chancellor Award for Researcher of the Year in 2017, and several early-career awards such as the Cambridge-Nehru Scholarship and Overseas Research Scholarship for his PhD.