From Ed Schlesinger, Benjamin T. Rome Dean, and Marsha Wills-Karp, Chair, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering:
It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we must share the tragic news of the loss of one of our colleagues, Harihar Rajaram, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. Hari passed away on Thursday, July 4 at his home in Baltimore.
Hari was a prominent figure in the field of environmental and earth systems, known for his innovative use of mathematical models to understand and predict complex environmental phenomena. He was a world-renowned expert in hydrology and his research spanned a wide range of areas, from the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing to the biogeochemical impacts of climate warming on glaciers and ice sheets. Hari had a highly collaborative approach to science and an ability to work across disciplines to develop new areas of research and push the boundaries of engineering to develop innovative solutions to environmental challenges.
Beyond his professional achievements, Hari was known for his kindness, humility, and dedication to mentoring young scientists.
Hari’s academic training began at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, where he received his Bachelor of Technology. He received his MS from the University of Iowa and, in 1991 and his PhD in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University in the Department of Civil Engineering and Operations Research and then was a professor and department chair in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1993 to 2012.
Hari joined JHU’s Department of Environmental Health and Engineering in 2018. Since then, he has held many roles in the department, serving as EHE’s deputy chair and co-chair of EHE’s Educational Programs Committee. He was also a member of EHE’s Faculty Affairs Committee, director of graduate studies for EHE-WSE, and served on WSE’s CUE working group. He led the department’s recent ABET accreditation process and shepherded the department through the development of several new educational programs, including EHE’s unique Advanced EHS course, for which he received the school’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
During his career, Hari has received numerous accolades and awards including the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, the College of Engineering Faculty Research Award (2016), the Clarence Eckel Prize for Faculty Excellence (2016), Research Development Award (2005), Department Service Award (2001); and the Outstanding Professor Award, Chi Epsilon Honor Society (2001, 2013, 2015). He served as editor of the premier journal in fluid mechanics, Water Resources Research, from 2013 to 2017 and received the Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Refereeing in 1998. He was recently elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Dr. Vijaya Subramanian, who is on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, and their son, Vinu, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, during this difficult time.