Leading Swiss climate researcher dies in Greenland accident
Konrad Steffen, a prominent Swiss researcher on climate change, has died in an accident in Greenland.
The 68-year-old was killed in an accident at a weather station, known as Swiss camp, at the weekend, officials said on Monday. He fell into a crevasse full of water when the snow gave way beneath him, some 100 metres from the camp.
As of Tuesday, Steffen’s body had not yet been recovered.
Steffen, a dual Swiss/American who headed the Federal Office for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research since 2012, has conducted research into climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic for more than 40 years.
More
Iceman keeps his cool despite global warming
“With Koni Steffen’s death, we have lost a uniquely kind and committed colleague. Everyone in the ETH Domain is greatly saddened by this loss,” Michael Hengartner, the chairman of the board of the Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich said in a statementExternal link.
Steffen had a successful career as a scientist after his doctorate in 1984 and taught at the University of Boulder, Colorado.
From 2012 he was also professor for climate and cryosphere research at the Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and in Lausanne.
His work took him to Greenland every year, and he was the scientific director of the Swiss Polar Institute.
In this video from 2018, Steffen talks about his work and the Swiss contribution to polar research:
More
Why melting glaciers affect us all
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.