Uthara Srinivasan ’95 Made Princeton Reunions Greener

Uthara Srinivasan ’95 was many things — an environmental advocate, scientist, flutist, poet, artist, yogi, dancer, mother, and wife — but arguably her most significant achievement was something for which she was not even recognized.

In 2008, Srinivasan led a peer-reviewed study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which was the first to show that environmental damage caused by wealthy countries disproportionately affects poorer nations. Less than a decade later, Pope Francis published Laudato si’, an encyclical that calls for “care for our common home.” The document says the worst impacts of climate change would probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades.

Her family and friends believe Srinivasan’s paper was likely instrumental to the publication.

So whenever Srinivasan — who, due to a pair of unsuccessful back surgeries, largely did not hold a traditional job — felt insecure about her accomplishments, her husband, John Heck, lovingly reminded, “You influenced the pope. What more do you want?”

Srinivasan was never one to rest on her laurels.

After moving as a baby with her family to Illinois from India, Srinivasan, who usually went by Uthie or Thara, excelled in school and was valedictorian of her high school class.

At Princeton, she majored in chemical engineering and was also a creative writing student, successfully tackling two theses her senior year. Fellow chemical engineering major and creative writer Ashanthi Pereira Mathai ’95, and Srinivasan’s roommate, Sarah Senesky Dolfin ’95, remember long nights in the E-Quad with Srinivasan when she would suddenly dash off for practice with the Princeton University Orchestra, then return for more studying.

Mathai recalls Srinivasan’s “limitless energy, limitless enthusiasm,” and how “she was always ready to go the extra mile.”

“She was one of the hardest-working people that I have ever known,” says Dolfin. “She was always so enthusiastic about anything she was working on, and she put her all into it.”

Srinivasan met Heck just months after starting her doctoral degree in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where they settled. The couple married in 2001 and had two children: Leena, born in 2011, and Rohan, born in 2013.

Srinivasan worked in biotechnology, inventing microfluidic processes and consulting for companies in genomics, drug screening, and clinical diagnostics, but according to Heck, “She sort of got a little bit disenchanted” with the field of chemical engineering and was “passionately opposed to the sheer amount of artificial products we humans are making, and the impact it has on our health and environment.” As a result, she turned toward environmental work, including research on overfishing.

She authored poems that were published in literature journals. She was also just a few chapters away from finishing a children’s book about royal jelly that is eaten by queen bees and, in her story, cures certain childhood illnesses, directly intertwining the fate of the bee population with that of humankind. Heck says he hopes to finish the work.

Princeton alumni may be familiar with Srinivasan through her work as co-chair of the Greening Reunions Alumni Working Group (GRAWG), which formed in 2020. Srinivasan was compelled to act after observing the waste generated at her 20th reunion.

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Uthara Srinivasan ’95’s painting of great egrets.

Courtesy of John Heck

In addition to initiatives such as purchasing carbon offsets and offering more vegetarian meals, GRAWG has focused on reducing the number of disposable cups at Princeton by using reusable and compostable cups instead. It was a passion project for Srinivasan, who told PAW in 2023 that “we just really want to make a change.”

GRAWG member J. David Hohmann ’88, who considered Srinivasan a friend though they never met in person, sees sustainability “as a global direction to be heading, like the North Star.” Noting that Uthara literally means “North Star” in Sanskrit, Hohmann says he felt Srinivasan was “a bright light to many in her life,” and “inspired people around her and let their light shine.” GRAWG has stalled since Srinivasan’s passing, according to Hohmann.

Hannah Reynolds Martinez ’22, who has worked with GRAWG, credits Srinivasan’s dedication despite slow progress. Classes adopting reusable tableware and renting tablecloths “were things that wouldn’t have happened without Thara.”

GRAWG was recently notified that it has won the Alumni Council Committee on Reunions Award for Innovation “for its extraordinary efforts to advance sustainable practices for Reunions,” which will be presented at the Alumni Council meeting in May. Srinivasan was cited for her leadership and dedication to sustainability at Reunions, which in turn has inspired other reuners to adopt sustainable practices. In addition, Srinivasan will be honored in the Princeton Reunions Sustainability Handbook for Alumni Volunteers, according to Erika Knudson, assistant vice president of advancement communications.

Srinivasan died from natural causes just one month after turning 50, but her legacy lives on, and a rimu tree at the University of California Botanical Gardens, where Srinivasan was a docent, acts as a living memorial.

As she wrote in her poem Remembered Gardens: “What are / memories when the sharer is gone? Amber, inlaid in time. / It is not that we are alone / but that sometimes all we can carry are gems.”

Julie Bonette is PAW’s writer/assistant editor.