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John Hopkins University mourns passing of professor Harihar Rajaram

Rajaram, an environmental and earth systems researcher and world-renowned hydrologist, passed away on July 4 at his home in Baltimore. He was 59.

Harihar Rajaram / Image- Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) mourned the passing of Harihar Rajaram, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the university who also served as the department's deputy chair and director of graduate studies.

Rajaram, an environmental and earth systems researcher and world-renowned hydrologist, passed away on July 4 at his home in Baltimore. He was 59.

Celebrated for his innovative use of mathematical models to understand and predict complex environmental phenomena, Rajaram’s research encompassed areas such as the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing and the biogeochemical effects of climate warming on glaciers and ice sheets. 
 



The Indian American was renowned for his ability to collaborate with others; he worked across fields to advance engineering knowledge and find answers to environmental problems.

In a message to the Whiting School community, dean Ed Schlesinger and Marsha Wills-Karp, chair of the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, expressed their grief, "It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we must share the tragic news of the loss of one of our colleagues. Beyond his professional achievements, Hari was known for his kindness, humility, and dedication to mentoring young scientists."

Joining JHU in 2018, Rajaram held various roles, including deputy chair and co-chair of the educational programs committee. He led the department's recent ABET accreditation process and developed several new educational programs.

Rajaram received numerous accolades, including the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, the College of Engineering Faculty Research Award, the Clarence Eckel Prize for Faculty Excellence, and the Research Development Award. He served as editor of Water Resources Research and was editor-in-chief of Geophysical Research Letters, the flagship journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), where he was recently elected as an AGU Fellow.

Rajaram's academic journey began at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he earned his Bachelor of Technology. He received his master's degree from the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University and served as a professor and department chair at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1993 to 2012.

He is survived by his wife, Vijaya Subramanian, a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, and their son, Vinu, a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley.

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