Suman Kumar

Suman is a professional welder, engineer, and social entrepreneur. He graduated from the University of Rochester with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and with a master’s degree in global affairs from Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar. As a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, he is currently pursuing a master's degree in international policy at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. After the Nepal earthquake, he collaborated with non-profits on disaster response and prevention projects that involved designing and manufacturing machines that built 5,365 shelters for over 26,000 earthquake victims. Through his social venture, he rebuilt two schools for over 150 students and built a digital learning platform for over 500 students who had limited access to education. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he led several COVID response technological innovation projects in Nepal by spearheading collaborations with research labs from UCSF, Berkeley, and Stanford. Through his manufacturing business, he built machines and equipment for waste-recycling factories for a local government, Nepal’s first aquaponics farm, UN’s research project, and more. He has been recognized by several world leaders such as the Queen of Belgium, Norway's and Belgium's Prime Minister, the UN’s Deputy Secretary-General, and the European Commissioner. He has been invited to speak at international conferences, including European Development Days in Brussels, One Young World in Bogota, and HPAIR at Harvard University.