Indian-Origin Climate Scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan Wins Prestigious Crafoord Prize

• Indian-origin climate scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan has been awarded the 2026 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
• Often called the “Nobel of Geosciences,” the prize recognizes Ramanathan’s decades of research on super-pollutants and atmospheric brown clouds.
• In 1975, while at NASA, Ramanathan discovered that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) trap heat up to 10,000 times more effectively than carbon dioxide.
• His Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) linked air pollution to a weakened Indian Monsoon and accelerated melting of Himalayan glaciers.
• Ramanathan, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, will receive 8 million Swedish kronor and a gold medal in May 2026.

Why It Matters: Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an Indian-origin climate scientist, received the Crafoord Prize for his groundbreaking climate research.