Vivek Kumar is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston. He completed his PhD in Bioengineering at Georgia Tech, a post doc at BIDMC, Harvard Medical School and at Rice. He began at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT, in 2016, secured tenure in 2022, and moved to UH in September of 2025. At UH, his group explores computational peptide materials design, drug discovery, development and delivery, biomaterials and tissue engineering with broad interests in inflammation modulation and angiogenesis. He has published over 60 peer reviewed journal articles and 100 conference abstracts with specific interests in understanding the role of small growth factor or cytokine mimics’ ability to signal cognate receptors, primarily funded by the NIH. Vivek teaches Biomaterials, Biomedical Translation, Entrepreneurship, and grant writing/pitching. He strives to encourage research involvement with undergraduates, graduates and post-doctoral scientists at the KumarLab.