Dr. Rajiv Kumar is an Assistant Professor at Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-India. His research interests are to understand the immune mechanisms underlying the progression of diseases such as Malaria and Visceral Leishmaniasis, and to distinguish anti-parasitic host immune responses that control disease from the responses that cause disease. He has a broad background in cellular and molecular immunology of infectious diseases, as well as significant field and epidemiological work experience. He received training at NIAID, NIH in Bethesda, USA and at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia.

Dr. Kumar was selected as a young scientist by DST to represent India in 2nd BRICS nations young scientist conclave at China in 2017. He has published paper in prestigious international Journals like Nature Immunology, Cell Reports, Nature Medicine, PLoS Pathogens, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Infectious Diseases etc and his lab is funded by many national and international grants.