Shukla Awarded 52nd IMO Prize by World Meteorological Organization
Shukla Part of Nobel-Winning IPCC

A Brief Biography:

J. Shukla was born in 1944 in a small village (Mirdha) in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, India. This village had no electricity, no roads or transportation, and no primary school building. Most of his primary school education was received under a large banyan tree. He passed from the S.R.S. High School, Sheopur, in the first class with distinction in Mathematics and Sanskrit. He was unable to study science in high school because none of the schools near his village included science education. His father, the late Shri Chandra Shekhar Shukla, asked him to read all the science books for classes 6 through 10 during the summer before he was admitted to the S.C. College, Ballia, to study science. After passing the twelfth grade from S.C. College, he went to Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U.) where, at the age of 18, he passed BS (honors) with Physics, Mathematics, and Geology in the first class and then earned the MS in Geophysics in the first class in 1964. He received PhD in Geophysics from BHU in 1971 and ScD in Meteorology from MIT in 1976. s

Summary of Professional Activities:

Dr. Shukla has made significant contributions to the understanding of the predictability of weather and climate including the Asian monsoon dynamics, deforestation and desertification. His research has established that there is predictability in the midst of chaos and that there is a scientific basis for short-term climate prediction.

Dr. Shukla has been instrumental in creating weather and climate research centers in India. When India received the first supercomputer from the USA under special agreement for monsoon forecasting, he was invited by India to be the scientific leader in establishing the National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) in New Delhi. He helped recruit and train the scientific staff, and implemented a global model to make weather forecasts for India. He has close collaboration with the Indian researchers in the India Meteorological Department, New Delhi; IIT, New Delhi; IISc., Bangalore; Allahabad Univ.; IITM, Poona; and Goa University. Dr. Shukla has also established research institutions in Brazil, Italy, and the USA.

Dr. Shukla is the author or co-author of over 150 scientific papers and has served as chairman or member of numerous national and international panels and committees. For the past 34 years, he has visited his village every year. He has established Gandhi College in his village for education of rural students especially women.

More Information:

Selected Honors and Awards, including the International Meteorological Organization Prize and the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Medal

Dr. Shukla's Curriculum Vitae (short version): (HTML format) (PDF file) (MS Word doc)

WMO Bulletin Interview (MS word doc)

New York Times Profile (PDF file)

Dr. Shukla's Curriculum Vitae (complete): (PDF file) (MS Word doc)

Dr. Shukla's Publication List

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