Arun K. Shanker is serving as a Principal Scientist (Plant Physiology) with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) at the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture in Hyderabad, India. He is working with the ICAR as a full time researcher since 1993 and has since earned his advanced degree in Crop Physiology from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University while in service. He has been awarded the prestigious Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), by the Royal Society of Chemistry, London in 2018 and the Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRCB) in 2018. He is an Endeavour Executive Fellow of the Department of Education and Training, Government of Australia and has been awarded the Commonwealth Star by the Australian Government. He is a Plantae fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists. He is listed in the top 2 percent of the world scientists for the year 2019 in a Stanford study. He is presently working on systems biology approach to study the mechanism of abiotic stress tolerance in crops. His main focus now is to unravel the mechanism of drought and heat stress response in plants to tackle climate change related threats in agriculture.