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Washington, Warren M.
Oral history interview with Warren M. Washington, 28 October 1998.
Warren Washington discusses his early education and family background, undergraduate work in math at Oregon State in the 1950s, and reflects on race relations and programs to help minority students. He describes computer technology of the time, and his graduate work on mountain waves. He talks about early work on objective analysis/numerical forecast models with Hans Panofsky at (Penn State). He details his work on modeling at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) beginning in 1963 and comments on the 1973 Kasahara-Washington model and its antecedents. Washington compares the scientific and management approaches used at NCAR, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He discusses early awareness of carbon dioxide-induced climate change, and reviews development of the datasets and computer technology used for climate modeling. He describes the 1969 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and his appointment as Chairman of the Youth Council, being appointed as a Senior Scientist at age 35, and reflects on the difficulty of recruiting minority candidates at NCAR, and his focus on mentoring minority young people. He notes his work with Jerry Meehl on Burt Sentner's model, and the development of the CSM, Climate System Model. He describes the process of attempting to acquire a supercomputer, and his appointment as Affiliate Scientist at University of Michigan. He describes his work on thermal effects in the 1970s, and the philosophy of choices made to create models. He talks about changes in scientific publications over time, and details his participation on the President's National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmospheres (NACOA). He goes on to describe the IPCC process, and his efforts to educate people in other disciplines about climate modeling. He offers examples of the impact of improved datasets and the value of inter-comparisons in improving modeling. He then reflects on the political approaches to funding climate research in the 1990s, and on his contributions during his tenure as director of the Climate and Global Dynamics Division of NCAR, his appointment to the National Science Board and other advisory committees.
Meteorologist.
Meehl, Gerald A.
Panofsky, Hans A.
Washington, Warren M.
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (U.S.)
National Center for Atmospheric Research (U.S.)
National Center for Atmospheric Research (U.S.). Climate and Global Dynamics Division
National Science Board (U.S.)
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania State University
United States. National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Michigan
Carbon dioxide
Climatic changes
Computer simulation
Mathematics
Meteorology
Minorities in science.
Numerical weather forecasting
Race.
Supercomputers
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Meteorologists -- Interviews. lcsh
Edwards, Paul N. interviewer
American Meteorological Society
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
AIP-ICOS
National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Archives. PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, USA
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