Born in Chicago in 1931,[2] he attended Wheaton College and interacted with J. Laurence Kulp, Paul Gast and Karl Turekian.

[3] At Columbia, he worked at the Lamont Geological Observatory[4] with W. Maurice Ewing[2] and Walter Bucher.

[12] Days before his death, he gave a livestreamed video message to his fellow scientists, where he said that humankind was not moving quickly enough to stop global warming and urged the scientific community to "seriously study more extreme solutions to the climate crisis.

This included research on the biogeochemical cycles of the element carbon and on the record of climate change contained in polar ice and ocean sediments.

[14][15] However, his contributions stretch far beyond the "conveyor"; his work is the foundation of carbon cycle science, and his applications of radiocarbon to paleoceanography are landmarks in the field.

[16][17] Broecker wrote about his research, on mode changes in the thermohaline circulation: "We have clear evidence that different parts of the earth's climate system are linked in very subtle yet dramatic ways.

His citation was made by Enric Banda (Research Professor of Geophysics at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Barcelona):[27] For his extraordinary contributions to the understanding of climate change through his discoveries concerning the role of the oceans and their interactions with the atmosphere, as well as the role of glacial changes and the records contained in ice cores and ocean sediments.

The award certificate also highlights "his holistic approach", which has led him to identify "the mechanisms of abrupt climate change".