The Complex Fluids DS-CFD Lab will be officially launched in August 2026 in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science. Dr. Manish Kumar will join the department as an Assistant Professor in August and will establish the lab. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur under guidance of Prof. Suman Chakraborty, his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University working with Prof. Arezoo M.  Ardekani, and completed his postdoctoral training in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with Prof. Michael D. Graham.

His selected honors include the Future of Rheology Excellent Speaker Award (2025), Trailblazers in Engineering Fellow (2024), Society of Engineering Science Future Faculty Award (2023), Society of Rheology Best Poster Award (2021), Ross Fellow (2017), Sikharini Nag Memorial Award (2017), and DAAD Fellow (2016). His research integrates theoretical, computational, and data-driven approaches to investigate the dynamics of complex fluids and soft matter, with applications in energy, biomedical, and environmental systems.