Dr. Satish Shetye completed his M.Sc. from the Dept. of Physics (IITB) in the year 1973. He later obtained his Ph.D. degree from University of Washington , USA in the year 1982.

His work has attracted a number of honours. In 1992 he was elected to the fellowship of the India Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. The same year he received the coveted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize for Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Environment Sciences. In 1997 he was elected a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. He received the New Millennium Science Medal at the Indian Science Congress, Pune in 2000. He is also fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad. Since 2001 he has been serving as the editor of the Proceeding of the Indian Academy of Sciences – Earth and Planetary Sciences. He also serves on a number of high level national and international bodies of ocean research.

Dr. Shetye began his career as Research/Teaching Assistant at the School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle in 1975. In 1982 he moved to the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa as Research Associate and rose to the position of Scientist in 1984 and later took over as its Director in 2004.