Dr. Naresh Kumar is the Executive Director of the Division of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at Desert Research Institute (DRI) where he leads over 100 scientists, engineers, and research support staff who conduct basic and applied research in diverse areas such as air quality and associated health risks, cloud and aerosol physics, atmospheric chemistry, climate, renewable energy, fire science, and atmospheric dynamics.
Dr. Kumar has over 30 years of experience in conducting and leading research in air quality and health, environmental aspects of renewables and natural gas, climate change, wind and solar forecasting, and multimedia environmental issues. Prior to joining DRI, he served at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in various roles, most recently being a Senior Program Manager in the Environment Division and was responsible for the strategic business and research direction in those research areas. Prior to joining EPRI, Dr. Kumar was at Sonoma Technologies, Inc. where he played a leading role in development and application of advanced air quality models in collaboration with academia to simulate emissions, meteorology and air quality in California.
Dr. Kumar is co-author of more than fifty peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals. He has served on the Publications Committee of the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association and its Editorial Review Board having served as a Chair for both in the past. He has held many other leadership roles with different organizations throughout his career, including co-chair of the Executive Steering Committee for the North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone (NARSTO); the Community Modeling and Analysis System External Advisory Committee; the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee Panel for Secondary SOx/NOx National Ambient Air Quality Standards; and the NYSERDA Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Adaptation. He has also organized multiple conferences and workshops on different scientific topics inviting leading scientists to develop research agendas on those topics.
Dr. Kumar received his B. Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from I.I.T. Kharagpur, an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He also holds an MBA degree from University of California Haas School of Business, Berkeley.