Eric Barron

President Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University

Eric J. Barron served as the 18th president of The Pennsylvania State University from May 12, 2014, until his retirement on May 8, 2022. Previously, Barron served as president of Florida State. He has more than 35 years of leadership experience in academic administration, education, research and public service, as well as a track record as a talented manager of fiscal policy within large and complex institutions.

In 2017, Barron was named the chairman of the Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Prosperity (CICEP) for the Association of Public Land-grant Universities. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for APLU, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and Kish Bancorp, Inc.

Barron spent the first 20 years of his career at Penn State, serving as dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences from 2002 to 2006, and as founding director of the Earth System Science Center, one of the first major initiatives focused on the total study of Earth as a system. In 1999, he was named Distinguished Professor of Geosciences at Penn State.

An accomplished scientist with a long background in atmospheric research, Barron was the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Over the decades, Barron has lent his significant expertise in the areas of atmospheric science and the geosciences to many national committees and federal agencies, including nearly 20 years of service as the chair of multiple National Research Council committees and boards.

Barron earned a B.S. in geology at Florida State and his M.S. and Ph.D. in oceanography at the University of Miami.