Michael Mann, climate scientist and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, won his defamation case and was awarded $1 million by the jury, writes Suman Naishadham for the Associated Press.

Mann sued two conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to convicted child molester, Jerry Sandusky.

In 1998, Mann rose to fame for a graph first published in the journal Nature that dubbed the “hockey stick” for its dramatic illustration of a warming planet.

The work led him to wide exposure.

However, it also led to skepticism, including from the two writers he took to court, Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn.

They claimed that Mann manipulated data.

“Mann could be said to be the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except for instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data,” Simberg wrote.

Steyn called Mann’s research “fraudulent.”

According to Mann, their comments affected his career and reputation in the U.S. and internationally.

The jury in the District of Columbia Superior Court found that they made false statements, and awarded Mann $1 million in damages.

Upon winning the case, Mann said, “It’s a good day for us, it’s a good day for science.”

Read more about Michael Mann’s defamation case and the ramifications of the verdict in the Associated Press.

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