Himanshu Pathak

Himanshu Pathak is an Indian agricultural scientist and administrator who became Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, in March 2025. Born in 1965 in West Bengal, India, and trained in agricultural science at Banaras Hindu University and in environmental science at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, he built his career studying the effects of climate change and abiotic stress on crop systems, work that contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report and to India's negotiating position at United Nations climate talks between 2011 and 2015. Before moving to ICRISAT he served as Secretary of India's Department of Agricultural Research and Education and as Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the country's apex agricultural research body, and he has also served as president of India's National Academy of Agricultural Sciences.