Dan Blanco is first-generation PhD student in the Atmospheric Science program through the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University. He graduated from Lewis University in 2022 with his Bachelor’s degree in Physics and an emphasis in mathematics. He’s a former member of Northwestern University’s Climate Change Research Group (CCRG) where his work focused on the Laurentian Great Lakes hydrology. Dan is affiliated with the Climate Impact Lab and the MACH Hazards Team. His current research seeks to develop a framework for estimating the time of emergence for future mortality impacts due to climate change. Specifically, he’s looking to estimate the year in which the severity of future mortality events due to extreme temperatures becomes attributable to climate change rather than internal variability. He aims to use the skills adopted by the C2R2 program to produce equitable strategies in combating climate change, and ultimately bettering the communities we live in.