Dr. Mathew Kurian, age 53, born in Bangalore India, died on November 14, 2023 after battling against a rare form of lung cancer for 17 months. Mathew resided in State College, P.A. but had the opportunity to live, study and establish long-lasting friendships in many places throughout the world. On January 24, 2004 in Bangkok Thailand, he married Yu Kojima, his loving wife from Japan who shares similar passions and commitments in the world of the international development. He was the son of the late P.M. Kurian and Grace Kurian; a brother to Shirley, an uncle to Rohan and Rhea Johns and a dear friend and colleague to many. He was also a believer and part of the Syrian Christian Community.
Mathew was raised in Nigeria where his parents as academics taught courses in botany and Marxist history as part of the government program to promote the advancement of higher education for girls in rural areas. His initial interest in environmental studies in the developing world was shaped by his parents’ passion for their subjects and his fond memories from his early time in Africa, which later turned into his deep commitment to his work on environment and development planning and climate justice. Mathew earned a Doctorate in Philosophy (Development Studies) from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands. His research focused on the challenges of development and environment, the trajectories of cooperation and the dynamics of institutional change where the complexity of human-environment interactions was emphasized through his study of community-based forest and water user groups in the Indian Himalayas.
Mathew pursued policy research and teaching interests that addressed the disproportionate impacts of climate adaptation efforts on vulnerable social groups in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Between 2019 and 2022 he served as Institute of Science Technology and Public Policy (ISTPP) Fellow at Texas A&M. As Consortium Lead for the Belmont Forum project on cyber-enabled disaster resilience. Mathew launched the Theory of Change Observatory (TOCO_DR) project with support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESSP) and United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) at the Penn State University. Further, he drew upon case studies from his research at the Tata Energy Research Institute, The World Bank and Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (IWMI-CGIAR) to design a new curriculum and teach environmental justice courses at University College London, UK, UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands, and United Nations University (UNU), Germany. Mathew’s service to the United Nations includes the launch of the Nexus Observatory- a big data analytics platform to support the co-design of environmental models and the establishment of the Africa Points of Excellence (APE) consortium on drought risk monitoring involving partnerships with Ministries in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Malawi. He has also previously served as staff consultant to undertake a review of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) environmental and social safeguards. In recognition of his efforts Mathew Kurian was appointed in 2021-22 as a Subject Matter Expert by the monitoring and evaluation units of both the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Incheon, South Korea and the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), Rome, Italy.
Mathew will be remembered for the love and care he had for others; for being thoughtful and sincere in his thoughts and deeds; his easy and fun-loving character; and for his loyalty and generosity. His dedication to public work will also be remembered, as he pursued it with steadfast dedication and passion in his desire to contribute to a more just and sustainable future. Lately, Mathew was passionate about addressing ever growing tensions between theory and practice of international development. With his wife, Mathew initiated the Climate Panel in 2022, an initiative which aims to energize the international development mechanism by transforming data into actionable insights to enhance the resilience of the global food system. For this purpose, he developed and launched a free Google play App- Loss and Damage (https://theclimatepanel.org) during his last summer in 2023. It is a unique diagnostic digital tool to enable communities acutely affected by climate change to hold decision makers accountable for their choices and decisions in managing tradeoffs between economic development and environmental management. By capturing people’s voices and living knowledge, he envisioned to promote a more inclusive learning process of climate induced environmental assessment where there is less division and hierarchy in knowledge production.
While a brief memorial service has already been held for Mathew on 15 November 2023 in State College PA, several virtual events will be initiated by family and friends in coming months. The aim of these events will allow those of you who had the privilege being a part of his life in the various places across the continents he called home to come together and remember him.
An online guestbook may be signed and condolences left for the family at www.hakygeorgianafh.com