National Weather Service and the NOAA-Education Collaborative Science Center Project: Shaping a Diverse and Scientifically Capable Workforce through Collaborative Research

The NOAA Collaborative Science Center (CSC) project is a multi-year funded award to various minority serving institutions to promote a diverse technical workforce to support a more resilient society to weather extremes and environmental threats. In the atmospheric sciences, NOAA/NWS is partnering with Howard University's NOAA Cooperative Science Center for Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (NCASM) to engage faculty, and postdoctoral and graduate students, focusing on under-represented communities, to participate in collaborative research with NOAA/NWS. The goal of the NOAA/NWS-CSC project is to help enable the production of a highly-skilled cadre of technically and environmentally literate professionals particularly involving under-represented populations. Collaborative research of relevance to the mission of NOAA is the primary means to achieve the goal of the program. In addition to Howard University, there are eight partner and four affiliate institutions within the NCASM umbrella.

This presentation covers plans, strategies and accomplishments of this on-going collaboration and the contributions to national science policy and personnel. For instance, Howard University is now the leading producer of african american and hispanic female doctorates in atmospheric sciences in addition to the valuable observations from NCASM used by NOAA. NCASM supports a facility used by NWS for instrument testing. In addition to the graduate students, the collaboration supports undergraduate research experiences at various NOAA facilities and collaborating academic institutions in the continental United States and Puerto Rico. The social, behavioral, economic, and communication (SBEC) sciences are a major component in this collaboration, with NCAS providing technical assistance in producing surveys and improving our understanding of risk communication. At this time over 60 NOAA scientists have been involved with NCASM.