Class Acts: Joshin Kumar
Engineer is working to protect us from the next pandemic
Particle science can run big and small — there’s literally a whole world of air particles to chase and track, something that has occupied much of the PhD work of Joshin Kumar at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. His eyes were to the skies, looking at the particulates that factor into climate change and air pollution. But then his PhD adviser, Rajan Chakrabarty, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, pulled him into a much smaller world: detecting the airborne particles that make us sick.
That work resulted in cutting-edge science, a first-of-its kind biosensor that can detect airborne particles of avian flu and potentially much more.
Kumar is continuing at WashU, doing postdoctoral work in the Chakrabarty lab, looking to scale up this sensor technology to make it readily available to industry and individuals who want to quickly track airborne pathogens and other microbes.
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