Oceanic dynamics are one of the keys to understanding climate variability and change. Oceanographer LuAnne Thompson, a Lowell A. and Frankie L. Wakefield Endowed Professor, uses climate models along with satellite observations to untangle the role that the ocean plays in moving and storing heat and chemicals in the climate system. She is the former Director of the Program on Climate Change at UW. She has also been involved in interdisciplinary collaborations that address the challenges that climate change will bring to natural and human systems.