Awards

National Academies - 2019

American Association for the Advancement of Science

About Justin P. Kumar

Kumar is professor of biology in the genome, cell, and developmental biology section in the Department of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences. He completed his undergraduate training at the University of California Riverside and his PhD is from Purdue University (1996) and he completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Southern California and Emory University. His research attempts to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie tissue fate selection, growth, and pattern formation. His work is based on the developing compound eye of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as an experimental model system. Kumar’s research has been funded by the National Eye Institute and an IU CTSI Core Pilot Grant. In 2019, Kumar was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for groundbreaking and trendsetting contributions in Drosophila eye development, which represent fundamental research on ontogenetic pathways having major implications for certain human visual system diseases. Kumar received the IU Trustees Teaching Award in 2015 and an IU Summer Faculty Fellowship (2006-2010).