Diwakar Shukla is a Blue Waters associate professor at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on investigating the mechanisms of inhibition of Rubisco and Rubisco activases in plants. For the RIPE project, he will be researching the molecular interactions responsible for inhibition of these enzymes and providing insights for the potential engineering of enzymes with reduced inhibition. Diwakar earned his bachelor's degree and master's degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. He went on to earn his doctorate in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work is published in many peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, and PNAS.