Krishna AchutaRao, a professor at IIT Delhi, passed away on Friday at the age of 62. He was a prominent figure in the study of the impact of human contributions on extreme weather events and had been ailing for some time.
Contributions to Climate Science
AchutaRao was affiliated with the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences at IIT Delhi, where he focused on climate risk assessment and attribution science. This field aims to measure the extent of human activities contributing to individual extreme weather events. He was a key member of World Weather Attribution, a global network of scientists dedicated to assessing major extreme events worldwide to quantify the human footprint on these occurrences.
In addition to his research, AchutaRao contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN-backed organization that conducts global assessments of climate change. He was passionate about protecting marginalized and vulnerable communities from the adverse effects of climate change and played a vital role in establishing the Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Adaptation at IIT Delhi.
