At a Glance
- Steffen was a former director of CIRES.
- He spent 40 years researching climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic.
- He died in an accident at a weather station he founded in 1990.
Prominent climate change scientist Konrad "Koni" Steffen died Monday in an accident near a weather station he founded on the Greenland ice sheet.
Steffen, 68, who spent 40 years conducting research in the Arctic and Antarctic, was considered one of the world's leading authorities on climate change
He had been director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research since 2012, according to an announcement from the agency. Prior to that position, Steffen was director of Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, known as CIRES, at the University of Colorado Boulder.
He was first appointed a professor at CIRES in 1990.
"Konrad (Koni) Steffen always had a smile and a kind word to say – to another scientist, a staff member, to the graduate student of a colleague," a news release from CIRES said. "And it seemed, at times, like he could do anything: brief Congress, ford a meltwater river on a snowmachine, mesmerize journalists with tales of his time on the ice."
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Steffen died when snow gave way underneath him and he fell into a crevasse of water. The incident happened at station known as Swiss Camp, which Steffen founded in 1990, according to the Daily Camera newspaper. His body was not immediately recovered.
CIRES Director Waleed Abdalati recalled spending time as a graduate student at the camp with Steffen.
“I just remember thinking, he loves this. I hope someday I can be (as) excited about something I work on as he is about this,” Abdalati told the Daily Camera. “He passed doing what he loved, where he loved it. As tragic as this is, I’m happy to know he was in his place.”
Former students and peers alike appreciated Steffen's mentorship and guidance.
“He was a warm and gracious person and he was a great mentor, with generosity that he offered to his graduate students and to the wider scientific community,” Ron Weaver, a retired senior associate researcher at CIRES and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said. “He was a visionary scientist in climate change and global climate research. I really think there will be a hole there for a while."
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