The brilliant Dr. Aradhna Tripati, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has been selected to receive the distinguished honor of the AGU Ambassador Award for her scientific expertise in climate change, clumped isotopes and geochemical tracers, as well as her critical work with belonging, access, justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). For decades, Dr. Tripati has been a committed voice of change working in STEM, including as the founder and director of the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science at UCLA. A sought-after mentor and adviser, she has mentored, advised/co-advised and trained countless students and teachers. Her approach is known for how it models cultural humility and anti-extractive and better ethical-cultural practices. And equally impressive is how she has established ways to create and sustain labs that teach inclusively, model unique hierarchical and anti-hierarchical structures and encourage a sense of belonging through different ways of nurturing the intersectional multitudes in the science student’s identity. With over 6,000 citations and over 100 publications, Dr. Tripati is renowned for her research in geochemical tracers for the study of Earth system processes and the history and dynamics of climate change. Tripati’s awards collection is impressive — it includes the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award, the Bromery Award for Minorities from the Geological Society of America, the E.O. Wilson Award for Outstanding Science on the Role of Carbon Dioxide Climate Change, and a Chair International D’Excellence in Stable Isotopes from the Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer. In addition, she has been elected to the California Academy of Sciences, is a fellow of the Geochemical Society, and now of AGU, and is a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow. She has set herself apart from other scientists in the geosciences because she has moved beyond theory and conversation into action. Further, she has been engaged in actionable transformative leadership through the development of a community of activated geoscientists that has resulted in measurable gains in racial diversity. Those who have benefited from her work and activism applaud this remarkable scholaractivist who is undeniably a pioneer. She is helping many who are underrepresented in geosciences to finally be able to say “I can see myself here,” which ultimately results in better science and humanity for all. 

— Kendall Moore University of Rhode Island Kingston, Rhode Island 

— Vernon Morris Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona