Athwal was a former professor and the Head of the Department of Plant Breeding at Punjab Agricultural University and an associate of Norman Borlaug, the renowned biologist and Nobel Laureate, with whom he has collaborated for the introduction of high-yielding dwarf varieties of Wheat. He was well known as Father of Wheat Revolution, he was important in developing ‘PV 18’ in 1966 and the most popular amber grained wheat variety ‘Kalyansona’ in 1967. In 1967, he joined International Rice Research Institute's management team and ultimately served as the Institute’s first deputy director general.