Dr. Warren M. Washington of NCAR has served as a mentor and role model to climate scientists of color (including the D-ClimNet investigators) over the last four decades. He was recently presented the Medal of Science by President Barack Obama.
D-ClimNet represents a new national partnership among the University of Vermont (UVM), the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Georgia (UGA) to create a pipeline of under-represented students from the high school to graduate degree levels. The network is unique in its focus on the climate sciences as well as its commitment to training the next generation of racially and gender diverse climate scientists with an explicit focus on climatology, climate change, and climate policy . By entraining underrepresented minorities into the study of climate science, D-ClimNet will not only increase opportunities for these groups but will help to shape the "face" of the next-generation climate scientists so that it more closely resembles the society in which we live.