Skip to main content

Warren Wiscombe Maniac Lecture

Personal Photograph

Emeritus of NASA GSFC, Guest Researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory, NY

While working in the private sector research industry after obtaining his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Warren Wiscombe essentially “fell into” the fledgling subject of climate modeling. In the late 1960’s he volunteered to work on a subcontract through the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Project Agency’s (ARPA) Climate Dynamics Program, the first large-scale climate research program centered around modeling. He continued to improve models by working as a senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and acted as chief scientist for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) largest global change research program, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. ARM focuses on better understanding clouds and radiative feedbacks. Dr. Wiscombe, who was formerly with the Climate and Radiation Laboratory at NASA Goddard, retired from NASA as a Senior Scientist in 2013.