John B. Drake was a researcher and group leader at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for thirty years and led the climate modeling efforts there from 1990 to 2010. Through collaborations with the National Center for Atmospheric Research and sister DOE national laboratories, Drake led the SciDAC projects that resulted in the Community Earth System Model (CESM1.0) released in 2010. Drake continues his involvement with the ORNL Climate Change Science Institute as a research professor at the University of Tennessee. He has taught graduate courses on climate modeling in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and conducted research into the impacts of climate change.