Prof. Krishna AchutaRao, Head of IIT Delhi’s Centre for Atmospheric Sciences and a lead IPCC author, died on 4 September 2026, at the age of 62, after nearly two decades at the institute.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi announced the death of Professor Krishna AchutaRao, a senior faculty member at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS), on 4 September 2026, at the age of 62.
In a statement issued on its official handle, the institute said Prof. AchutaRao had served at IIT Delhi for close to two decades, during which he held several positions of responsibility, including Dean (Faculty) and Head of CAS. He was also credited with playing an instrumental role in establishing the institute’s Centre of Excellence for Climate Change Adaptation.
According to his faculty profile on the CAS website, Prof. AchutaRao’s research centred on using climate models to understand how natural and human factors affect the Earth’s climate, including attributing extreme weather events and adapting to a warming climate. He previously worked at the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States before returning to India in 2007 to join IIT Delhi. He also served as Associate Faculty at the institute’s School of Public Policy.
Prof. AchutaRao’s association with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dated back to 2001, during which he served as a lead author for the organisation’s Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports. He also held advisory roles with the World Climate Research Programme’s CLIVAR Core Project, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, among other national and international review panels.
Climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, was quoted as saying that Prof. AchutaRao was known for “questioning compromises in scientific rigour” and would be missed by colleagues and friends. Colleagues have separately noted that his research helped establish the extent to which human-induced climate change could be detected in observed temperature trends across different parts of India, linking international climate science with region-specific risk assessment.
IIT Delhi extended its condolences to Prof. AchutaRao’s family, friends, and students, describing his passing as a loss to the institute’s academic and research community. Details of the circumstances of his death have not been officially disclosed, and no memorial event has been announced at the time of publication.
Image Source: IIT Delhi
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