Internationally recognized Dutch climate researcher Geert Jan van Oldenborgh has passed away at the age of 59. De Volkskrant writes this after confirmation from the KNMI. Last month, Van Oldenborgh was named one of the hundred most influential people of 2021 by Time magazine. He died on Monday from the effects of cancer.
Van Oldenborgh, who was originally a physicist, has worked at the KNMI since 1996. Since 2019 he has been a part-time professor at Oxford University.
Last April, the climate expert received a royal honor and the European Technology Achievement Award. He received the prestigious European prize for the development of the KNMI Climate Explorer, a website that makes large amounts of climate statistics accessible.
Together with a German colleague, Van Oldenborgh also developed a method to determine the role of climate change shortly after major weather disasters. Shortly before his death, it earned him a spot on Time Magazine’s leading list.
Last July, Van Oldenborgh investigated whether the extreme heat in the western United States was due to global warming:
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