Sonu Kumar is a PhD student at the National Institute of Education (NlE) and the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His research focuses on sustainable sand mining in Southeast Asia, employing advanced techniques such as satellite remote sensing, deep learning, and numerical modeling under Prof. Edward Park's supervision.

Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked as an Environmental Engineer in Thailand and as an R Programming Intern at the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka. He holds a M.Eng. in Water Engineering and Management from Asian Institute of Technology and a B.Tech. in Agricultural Engineering from Central Agricultural University, India.

He has received multiple prestigious scholarships and research grants, including Indian Council of Agricultural Research National Talent Scholarship (Bachelor's degree), Thai-Pipe Scholarship (Master's degree), Master's Thesis Research Grant (20,000 TBH), NIE-PhD Scholarship, and Stephen Riady Geoscience Scholarship Research Grant ($16,000 SGD).

His research interests include satellite-based monitoring, geospatial and big data analysis, machine/deep learning, hydrological modeling, flood and drought modeling, groundwater modeling, water quality modeling, and climate change impact assessment.