COPENHAGEN: A prominent Swiss-American glaciologist specialising in climate change has died in an accident in Greenland, his research institute said Wednesday.

Konrad Steffen, director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), was reported missing on Saturday and is believed to have fallen into a crevasse.

"His loss is very profound," Christoph Hegg, Deputy Director of WSL, told AFP.

"He was very much involved in the IPCC chapters on ice and oceans. There he was one of the leading scientists in his field," Hegg added. After going missing on Saturday, police initiated a search operation and on Sunday found evidence that the 68-year-old researcher had suffered a fatal accident.