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.
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Iceman keeps his cool despite global warming
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swissinfo caught up with him at the Swiss Camp on Greenland’s west coast, where he measures variations in the island’s ice cap with his research team from Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). “Koni”, as Steffen is known, is a true lover of nature, especially the cold and the snow. Since 1975,…
“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:
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French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the peace conference on Ukraine at the Swiss Bürgenstock resort next month, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
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A social media post by the president of Bern’s cantonal government critical of the Eurovision Song Contest has created waves and will be discussed in the cantonal parliament.
Swiss centre records over 200 victims of human trafficking
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Last year 317 people took part in a protection programme run by the Specialist Unit for Trafficking in Women and Women’s Migration (FIZ) in German-speaking Switzerland.
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The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday.
Lack of smartphone sustainability in Switzerland hits environment
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Almost half of all Swiss citizens hang on to their old smartphones, tablets and laptops, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Police clear out pro-Palestinian students protesting in Geneva
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The police intervened early on Tuesday to dislodge pro-Palestinian students who had been occupying the University of Geneva for almost a week.
New gel developed in Zurich renders alcohol harmless
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A newly developed gel composed of whey proteins breaks down alcohol in the body and could reduce its harmful and intoxicating effects in humans.
Pro-Palestine protests extend to Basel and Fribourg universities
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Demonstrators called for an academic boycott of all Israeli institutions and disassociation with Chaim Weizmann, the first Israeli president.
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How the Alps inform polar research
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Switzerland might seem an odd place for a summit on polar studies. But with its high mountains, it is part of the “third pole” after North and South.
Melting polar ice ‘directly threatens business profits’
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