Dr. Shankar Manoharan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Bioscience & Bioengineering at IIT Jodhpur. He is passionate about microbes, microbial communities and their workings. He currently leads the Microbial Physiology Laboratory at IIT Jodhpur. Shankar holds a Masters degree in Genomics and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Madurai Kamaraj University. In his Ph.D. work on molecular plant microbe interactions, he identified a new cross-Kingdom signaling mechanism, by which plants can control bacterial numbers in the rhizosphere. He then pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, where he identified new regulatory networks controlling the expression of key virulence factors in streptococci. In 2017 he was awarded the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance's Early Career Fellowship and joined IIT Jodhpur. His group has since worked on the hospital-acquired pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae to unravel new virulence mechanisms and regulatory layers controlling virulence. As part of a Team Science Grant funded by the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, Shankar's group is also studying the effect of food system changes on the gut microbiota of vulnerable tribal populations in India. In addition, his group is also surveying the microbiota of biocrusts, unique communities that engineer arid zone ecosystems with the aim of conserving,restoring, and tapping into the biosynthetic potential of these important desert communities. Apart from research, Shankar is passionate about teaching and enjoys the teaching-learning process. In 2022, he was conferred with the Dr. Vandana Sharma memorial award for innovation in teaching. He was also recognized with the Illustrious Alumnus award by his Alma mater, Thiagarajar College of Arts & Sciences, Madurai.