Veerabhadran Ramanathan

Veerabhadran Ramanathan is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University, part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). He is renowned for discovering the greenhouse effect of CFCs in 1975 and foundational contributions to climate science, leading to the Montreal Protocol. His work bridges climate science, policy, and education, focusing on mitigation strategies and resilience frameworks.

Education: B.E. in Engineering (1965, Annamalai University, India), M.Sc. in Engineering Science (1970, Indian Institute of Science), and Ph.D. in Planetary Atmospheres (1974, State University of New York at Stony Brook).

Research interests include climate change science, climate solutions, and climate literacy. He pioneered projects like Project Surya to reduce cooking-related emissions and led the Bending the Curve: Climate Solutions education initiative. His work emphasizes human-natural systems interactions and global policy impacts.

Key honors include the Tyler Prize (2009), Blue Planet Prize (2021), and election to the US National Academy of Sciences. He advises international bodies, including the Vatican and the UN’s Climate and Clean Air Coalition.