ICTP Announces Fundraising Challenge

In October, ICTP sat down with Jagadish Shukla, Meteorologist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at George Mason University, to talk about why he chose to issue a $25,000 fundraising challenge to the ICTP community.

Shukla (as he likes to be called) has been coming to ICTP for 35 years, since he first met ICTP's founder Abdus Salam, who tapped him to help create the first climate research group at the Centre. In July of this year, he contacted ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar and Institute Advancement Officer Amy Buchan Baldonieri to discuss the idea of issuing a fundraising challenge. Through the course of the discussions, Shukla decided to designate the $25,000 contribution toward the International Science Complex - a project to transform the Adriatico Guesthouse in to a world class hub for scientists. By doing this, Shukla's $25,000 would become $50,000 - matched by Simons Foundation International, who during ICTP's 60th Anniversary announced a $15 Million challenge to transform the Adriatico. Therefore, gifts matching the Shukla Challenge will be quadrupled!

Shukla published his memoir, A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory this past year. As a climate scientist working in predictability for much of his career - centered on how to predict monsoon rains in the village where he grew up and others like it - he is well versed in the Butterfly Effect.

Inspired by Prof. Shukla's generous donation, ICTP has launched its first ever Annual Giving Campaign, spreading the message far and wide and using as our theme the Butterfly Effect. We sent a message to ICTP's entire mailing list, beginning with just one butterfly . . .

As our community comes together to match Shukla's challenge to support the International Science Complex at the Adriatico - and thus gets multiplied again by the Simons Foundation International, stay tuned to see what happens to that one butterfly . . .

Do you believe in the Butterfly Effect?

No contribution is too small!  Be the butterfly that starts a chain reaction of discovery. Click the Donate button at the bottom of the page and select the option “ICTP 2.0” to quadruple your gift. 

About Jagadish Shukla

Jagadish Shukla (born 1944) is an Indian meteorologist and Distinguished University Professor at George Mason University (GMU) in the United States. Born in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, he rose from humble beginnings to earn advanced degrees from Banaras Hindu University and a ScD in Meteorology from MIT. Shukla is renowned for his groundbreaking work on climate predictability, monsoon dynamics, and seasonal forecasting, which helped establish a scientific basis for long-range climate prediction. He founded the Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES) and the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA), influencing climate research worldwide. A lead author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (2007), he has received numerous honors, including the Padma Shri, the IMO Prize, and the Rossby Research Medal. Beyond science, he supports education and rural development in India through initiatives like the Gandhi Degree College in his home village.