Indian-born Jagadish Shukla, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the ICTP Physics of Weather and Climate Group, has been awarded the first Sir Gilbert Walker Gold Medal from the Indian Meteorological Society. The award honours international scientists who have made significant contributions to monsoon studies. Shukla is head of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies and the School of Computational Science at George Mason University, USA. Shukla will return to ICTP in June as one of the directors of the summer colloquium on the physics of weather and climate.