Shankar Purushottam Agharkar was an Indian Morphologist. Agharkar obtained his PhD degree (1919) from the University of Berlin, Germany. His specialization was in Plant Morphology. He was the Ghosh Professor of Botany (1920–47) at the University of Calcutta; and Founder Director (1946–60) of Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science. He is one of the leading botanists of India. He explored biodiversity of Western Ghats where he came across a species of freshwater jellyfish, which was until then only known to be found in Africa. These findings were published in scientific journal Nature in 1912. Dr. Annandale, the Superintendent of the Indian Museum in Kolkata, helped Dr. Agharkar in his further endeavours to collect, preserve and conduct microscopic examinations of animal and plant specimens. The institute ARI, Pune has been named after him.