Shashank was awarded the scholarship to pursue MSc in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Reconstruction from the University of Manchester which he completed with a distinguished achievement award. He is a Quaternary scientist interested in the changes of past climates and its effect on landscape and biodiversity. He is currently pursuing PhD in Physical Geography at the University of Manchester. His ongoing doctoral research aims to reconstruct the palaeo-environmental and palaeo-glacial conditions over the last 15,000 years in high altitude eastern Himalayas. He is also involved in a project studying sand dune activity in the Thar Desert, as well as its response to palaeomonsoonal regimes. His research involves frequent field trips to collect samples for laboratory analysis and dating, which aligns well with his love to explore and observe nature with a keen interest in birds, butterflies and dragonflies. He has completed B.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. He has previously worked as a scientist-engineer at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO on various projects in the field of experimental fluid mechanics, propulsion and thermal characterisation.