Krishna AchutaRao, a leading voice in climate and atmospheric sciences and professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, died on September 4, 2026. He was 62.
Among his key contributions were determining the degree to which observed climatic change could be attributed to human activity. Over the years, his collaborative work with several scientists demonstrated detectable human influence on temperature changes across Indian sub-regions. This played a key role in connecting global climate science with the regional risks confronting India. “Krishna was a long-time friend and colleague, and over the years, we had many conversations and arguments about climate science. I will miss him deeply. In his two decades at IIT Delhi, he served as Head of the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences and Dean (Faculty), helping establish the institute’s Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Adaptation. “Krishna was a wonderful person and, of late, worked on the attribution of climate events like heat waves. He also applied AI tools in climate change and monsoon research.
An engineering graduate, he worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison in the U.S., before returning to India in 2007. He was also a member of the World Climate Research Programme’s Joint Scientific Committee from 2025.
He was also a clear and principled critic whenever scientific temper was compromised, something that has become increasingly important in the present political climate, “ Roxy Mathew Koll, climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, told The Hindu , adding, “His passing is a major loss to Indian climate science, but for many of us it is also the loss of a warm, thoughtful friend with a wonderful sense of humour. We will miss him,” Madhavan Rajeevan, Vice Chancellor, ATRIA University, and former Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, told The Hindu .
