Shankar is a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University with a rich background in plant pathology and fungal genomics. He earned his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Texas A&M University in 2021, where his research focused on rice seedling diseases, the population genomics of Rhizoctonia solani, and plant-host resistance. Following his doctoral studies, Shankar joined Louisiana State University as a postdoctoral researcher. There, he delved into the rice–Cercospora pathosystem, specifically working on the positional cloning and characterization of the narrow brown leaf spot (NBLS) resistance gene CRSP2.1. His research utilized fine mapping, comparative genomics, and transcriptomics to map and genetically characterize CRSP2.1, identifying key candidate genes associated with disease resistance. Before his current position at Colorado State University, Shankar worked as a Senior Scientist-I (Bioassay) at Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing at Columbia, Missouri. His research interests include fungal population genomics, phylogenomics, pathogen biology, the coevolution of plant major resistance (R) genes and pathogen avirulence (AVR) genes, and the genetics underlying plant host resistance. In 2024, Shankar joined the Stewart Lab to investigate the biology and the mechanisms of hybridization between two rust pathogens: the invasive Cronartium ribicola and the native Cronartium comandrae. By examining hybrid genetics and introgressive hybridization, Shankar aims to understand the role of hybridization in the evolution and emergence of new fungal pathogens.