Eric Barron, NCAR Director

Eric J. Barron, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), began a career in geology with an undergraduate degree from Florida State University (1973). After obtaining his master’s degree in oceanography, marine geology and geophysics from the University of Miami (1976), his interest turned to climate studies with a Cray Supercomputing Fellowship at NCAR. Upon completing his Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Miami (1980), he returned to NCAR as a postdoctoral research fellow and then continued as a research scientist in the global climate modeling group. In 1986 Barron went to Pennsylvania State University to direct the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ newly formed Earth System Science Center (ESSC), and was promoted to professor of geosciences in 1989. Under Barron’s leadership, the growth of ESSC resulted in the establishment of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Environment Institute, encompassing the ESSC and a group of other research center. Barron became the director of this new institute in 1998 and earned the title of distinguished professor in 1999. In 2002 he was named dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. Prior to coming to NCAR in July 2008, Barron served as dean of Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

Barron’s research interests are in the areas of climatology, numerical modeling, and Earth history. During his career, he has worked diligently to promote the intersection of the geological sciences with the atmospheric sciences and the field of earth system science. He served as chair of the Climate Research Committee of the National Research Council (NRC) from 1990 to 1996. In 1997, he was named co-chair of the Board on Atmospheric Sciences (BASC) of the NRC, and since 1999 he has chaired the BASC. Additional NRC panels on which Barron has served include the Committee on Global Change Research, the Assessment of NASA Post-2000 Plans, Climate Change Science, the Human Dimensions of Global Change, the Panel on Grand Environmental Challenges, and the Committee on Tools for Tracking Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Releases in the Atmosphere: Implications for Homeland Security. In addition to serving on the National Research Council, Barron chaired the Science Executive Committee for NASA’s Earth Observing System and NASA’s Earth Science and Applications Advisory Committee (ESSAC). He has also served as chair of the USGCRP Forum on Climate Modeling, the Allocation Panel for the Interagency Climate Simulation Laboratory, the U.S. National Committee for PAGES and the NSF Earth System History Panel.

Barron is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2002, he was named a fellow of the National Institute for Environmental Science at Cambridge University. In 2003, he received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal.