Professor Kumar has considerable previous experience in writing and editing books and journals related to genetics and genomics. His books include Genomics and Clinical Medicine and Genomics and Health in the Developing World. He founded and leads the new open access journal Applied and Translational Genomics, published by Elsevier. He has published 40 articles in the journals literature.Professor Dhavendra Kumar is a Visiting Professor, Genomic Policy Unit, Faculty of Life Sciences and Education, The University of South Wales and Consultant in Clinical Genetics at the University Hospital of Wales, Institute of Medical Genetics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom. He is one of the Consultants for the All Wales Medical Genetics Service and the lead Clinician for Clinical Cardiovascular Genetics. After qualifying in Medicine from the King George's Medical College, University of Lucknow, India, he completed postgraduate training in Pediatrics with an MD. Since 1980 he has pursued a career in Medical Genetics in the UK.

In 1990 he became a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics. He is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics (FACMG) and as well as Royal Colleges of Physicians (FRCP-London and FRCP-Ireland) and Pediatrics and Child Health (FRCPCH-UK).In 2015, he was conferred with the higher degree of DSc by his Alma Mater, King George's Medical University, Lucknow (UP, India) based on his life-time contributions and achievements to genetic and genomic applications in medicine and health.