Warren Wesley Buck III (born 16 February 1946) is an American physicist. He is credited with establishing the physics PhD program at Hampton University, a historically Black college in Hampton, Virginia, which was also the campus's first PhD program in any subject. Buck was also the first chancellor of University of Washington-Bothell and oversaw the university's transition to a four-year institution. His research focuses on nuclear and subatomic particles, including studies of the interactions between particles and anti-particles and the nature of mesons and the quark model.

Buck was born on 16 February 1946 at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C., to Warren W. Buck, Jr. and Mildred George Buck and has one younger brother, Lawrence Buck.

Both of his parents grew up in the Midwest: Warren Buck, Jr., had been raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and Mildred Buck in the Chicago suburbs. Mildred had been one of the few Black students to attend Evanston Township High School. Warren and Mildred met while studying at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, in a calculus class taught by Walter Richard Talbot. Talbot would later be a professor for Warren Buck III at Morgan State University. Warren Buck, Jr., was the first Black person hired to work as a draftsman for the Weather Bureau (which later was incorporated into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and Mildred Buck worked as a daycare center director and was one of the first Head Start teachers.

All of Buck's uncles served in World War II, some of them as Tuskegee Airmen.^{[citation needed]}

Growing up in Washington, D.C., Buck attended schools in the area for his primary and secondary education. He graduated from Spingarn High School, where he ran track, in 1963. Spingarn was opened as a segregated high school for Black students in Washington, D.C., in 1952. While in school, Buck participated in Boy Scouts and was an Eagle Scout with Bronze Palm and Order of the Arrow. His father founded his Cub scout troop at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., and his mother served as a den mother.

Buck went on to attend his parents' alma mater, Lincoln University, in Jefferson City, Missouri, on a partial scholarship to run on the track team. After two years at Lincoln, Buck transferred to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he began studying physics. In between changing schools, Buck worked as a waiter and bartender, and was eventually drafted for military service. However, upon applying and being accepted to Morgan State University, he was granted a deferral.

At Morgan State, Buck studied with Walter Talbot and Bob Dixon, who encouraged him to pursue doctoral studies. He graduated with a BSc in mathematics in 1968. That same year he enrolled at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, to pursue graduate studies. In the summer of 1968, Buck worked at Johns Hopkins University, working with internal waves in Professor Owen Phillip's lab in the mechanical engineering department.

He graduated with an MSc in experimental and theoretical plasma physics from William & Mary in 1970. While at William & Mary, Buck founded and drafted the constitution for the college's Black Student Organization in 1969, where he also served as the group's first president. He was also a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society during his time at the university.