Uthara Srinivasan ’95

Thara died April 18, 2024, in Berkeley, Calif., of natural causes.

Born in Jamshedpur, India, Thara grew up in the southern suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School. At Princeton, she played the flute in the University orchestra, was a member of Mathey College and Quadrangle Club, and double-majored in chemical engineering and creative writing. While working on her Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Berkeley, she met her husband, John Heck.

She made a career in ecology and environmental policy, and some believe that Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment (known as Laudato si’) was influenced by Thara’s paper on the distribution of environmental damages among rich and poor countries.

Recently, Thara spearheaded efforts to make Princeton Reunions greener, by working to replace the more than 350,000 disposable plastic cups used over the course of the weekend with a reusable cup service. In addition to her professional work, she was a published poet, a yoga instructor, and had almost finished her first children’s book.

Thara is survived by John and their children, Leena and Rohan.