Krishnan Raghavan is Professor, IIHS University, and Head, IIHS Centre for Research on Climate Sciences.

Krishnan brings over 38 years of scientific research experience in the areas of climate, environment, tropical meteorology, Indian and Asian monsoons, and water cycles. He specialises in climate modelling to understand key scientific issues relating to global and regional climate change.

Before joining IIHS, Krishnan worked at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, for over three decades (1995–2025). He also served as the Director of the Institute (2022–25), and was the Executive Director, Centre for Climate Change Research (CCCR) at IITM (2011–22). Prior to IITM, he worked as a senior scientist at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, New Delhi (1992–95).

Under the leadership of Krishnan, the CCCR at IITM, Pune, developed the first Earth System Model from India (IITM-ESM) that contributed to the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project – Phase 6 (CMIP6) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). Krishnan led a team from CCCR-IITM that published India’s First National Climate Change Assessment Report for the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India in 2020. He was a Coordinating Lead Author in the IPCC AR6 WG1 report (Chapter 8: Water Cycle Changes) and a drafting author in the Summary for Policymakers. He was also a Coordinating Lead Author of the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment Report: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability and People (2019) report, coordinated by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Krishnan has supervised 11 PhDs (degrees awarded) and co-supervised 11 PhDs (degrees awarded). He is currently supervising 1 PhD and co-supervising 3 other PhD candidates. He has delivered lectures in atmospheric general circulation, geophysical fluid dynamics, monsoons, climate variability and change.

Krishnan served as a member of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC), World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Geneva, 2019–24; member, CLIVAR Monsoon Panel, WCRP–WMO, 2014–18; member, CORDEX Science Advisory Team, WCRP–WMO (2012–14); and member, Scientific Steering Committee, Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS), 2012–15. He also served as editor of the journal Mausam (India Meteorological Department); the Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing; and Earth System Dynamics (European Geosciences Union (EGU)).

He holds a BSc from Bangalore University and an MSc in Applied Mathematics from the Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai. Later, he pursued his doctoral research in Atmospheric Sciences at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, from 1987–1992, and was awarded a PhD from the University of Pune in 1994.