Kevin Kumar, M.D., Ph.D.

Kevin Kumar, M.D., Ph.D., specializes in the treatment of pediatric brain and spine tumors, vascular malformations, developmental anomalies and epilepsy. He practices as a pediatric neurosurgeon at Dell Children’s Medical Center, and he is board-eligible by American Board of Neurological Surgery and American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.

Kumar completed his undergraduate education at Cornell University in 2009, where he graduated cum laude with distinction in research. He then received his M.D. (2016) and Ph.D. (2014) degrees from Vanderbilt University’s National Institutes of Health-funded Medical Scientist Training Program. He was a member of the laboratory of Aaron Bowman in the Vanderbilt Brain Institute. His dissertation focused on investigating neuronal manganese regulation Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease using high throughput screening, induced pluripotent stem cells and chemical biology approaches.

Kumar subsequently completed his neurosurgery residency at Stanford University from 2016-2023, including serving as chief resident from 2022-2023. At Stanford, he completed a two-year NIH NINDS R25-funded research fellowship in the laboratory of Marius Wernig in the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. His work focused on developing a platform to replace microglia in the brain as a novel therapy for neurodevelopmental disorders. This work ultimately resulted in the publication of the first proof of concept of this technology in a mouse model of a lysosomal storage disorder. In addition to his basic science efforts, Kumar was active in clinical research, publishing multiple articles studying neuromodulation, epilepsy, pediatric trauma, spine and vascular pathologies. From 2023-2024, Kumar completed his fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

Upon joining the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin, Kumar launched his research laboratory to develop novel cellular-based therapeutics for pediatric neurological disorders. He has published more than 35 peer-reviewed scientific articles and delivered over 30 presentations at national and international meetings.

His training was recognized with multiple honors, including the Donald O. Quest Medical Student Basic Science Award from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Elaine Sanders-Bush Neuroscience Research Prize from the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, the John G. Coniglio Prize in Biochemistry from Vanderbilt University, the Edwin Boldrey Young Investigator Award from the San Francisco Neurological Society, the Philip L. Gildenberg Resident Award from the AANS and the Resident Basic Science Research Award from Stanford University. As a faculty member, Kumar was selected as a NIH K12 Scholar by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and as a 2025 Texas Biodesign Fellow. He is also the recipient of the 2025 Cain Collaborative Research Pilot Grant and the Department of Pediatrics Research Grant at Dell Medical School.