Dr. Sundaram completed his B.Sc. (Agri) from TNAU- Coimbatore, M.Sc. (Agri) in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology as a DBT Research Fellow and PhD in Plant Sciences at University of Hyderabad as a CSIR-JRF.

He joined ICAR-IIRR (then known as Directorate of Rice Research) through Agricultural Research Service as a Scientist in the Biotechnology Section in 1998. Since then he has been working as a rice molecular breeder, focusing on studies related to biotic stress resistance, hybrid rice applications of biotechnology in addition to product development through transgenic breeding.

In collaboration with CCMB, Hyderabad, his group was instrumental in development and release of a high yielding, bacterial blight resistant, fine-grain type rice variety possessing low glycemic index (50.9), named Improved Samba Mahsuri (RPBio-226), which is one of the first marker-assisted selection (MAS) products in the country and is being cultivated in > 1,50,000 ha across the country. This development has paved the way for development of several improved breeding lines of varieties and hybrid rice parental lines possessing biotic stress resistance and abiotic stress tolerance by Dr. Sundaram. His team has developed a molecular marker-based strategy for rapid and reliable estimation of purity of seed-lots of rice hybrids and parental lines.

Presently, he is working on genetics and breeding for low soil P tolerance in rice, functional genomics studies related to rice-biotic stress interactions, characterization and improvement of hybrid rice related traits, enhancing biological nitrogen fixation in rice ecosystem, yield improvement through genomics-assisted breeding, besides his well recognized work on development of biotic stress resistance and yield in rice.

He has undergone intensive training on rice biotechnology at International Rice Research Institute in 2003. In 2005, he went to Cornell University, USA as an USAID-ABSPII Fellow to pursue research work on development of abiotic stress tolerant transgenic rice. Later in 2012, he went to Iowa State University and Cornell University, USA to pursue Post Doctoral studies on rice-bacterial blight interaction as an Indo-US (IUSSTF) fellow.

He has handled several externally funded research projects, published his works in many International (89) and National (31) Journals and has authored > 40 books/book chapters, technical bulletins and popular articles related to biotechnology.

He is the recipient of several awards and recognitions which include Lal Bahadur Shastri Outstanding Young Scientist Award of ICAR in 2011, Hari Om Ashram Trust Award of ICAR in 2012, CSIR Innovation Award for Rural Development in 2013, PN Behl Award for Excellence in Crop Sciences (2012-13), DBT Award for Biotechnology Product and Process Development and commercialization (2015).

Besides these, he is also a Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2019), Fellow of Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding (2017), Associate of NAAS (2013), DST-Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation Travel grant (2014), USAID Fellowship (2005), IUSSTF Fellowship (2011), serving as Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Rice Research, Academic Editor of PLos One Journal, Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology and is also serving as a member of several National Committees including EDV Committee of PPV & FRA, Committee on DNA fingerprinting of crops, BIRAC Technical Advisory and Site Visit Committee, etc.