William Easterling

Affiliation

Penn State University

Track

Biography

Dr. William E. Easterling, III is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Geography and Earth System Science at the Pennsylvania State University as of June 30, 2023. He was appointed Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in charge of the Geosciences Directorate for a four-year term on June 1, 2017. His term ended May 31, 2021. At NSF he oversaw an annual budget of approximately $1.3 billion that supports fundamental research in the atmospheric and geospace sciences, ocean science, solid earth science, and polar programs. He was also responsible for the successful operation of major national research facilities that include the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF’s largest Federally Funded Research and Development Center, FFRDC), the Academic Research Fleet, and the McMurdo and South Pole Stations in Antarctica. Under his leadership, the Geosciences Directorate launched the Coastlines and People funding initiative, Navigating the New Arctic as one of NSF’s Ten Big Ideas, a major modernization of the McMurdo Station and is poised to release a new solicitation on climate change and earth system predictability. He also Co-Chaired the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology for the White House National Science and Technology Committee. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), he served as dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences 2007-2017 at Penn State. He received his bachelors, masters and PhD degrees in geography and climatology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an internationally recognized expert on how climate change likely will affect the Earth’s food supply and was nominated by the White House to serve as a convening lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report’s Chapter on Food, Fibre, Forestry, and Fisheries. The lead authors of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report were co-awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. Easterling was a lead author on the 2015 USDA Report Climate Change, Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System, that received the 2016 Abraham Lincoln Honor Award for Increasing Global Food Security by the US Secretary of Agriculture. On matters of climate change and food, he has testified before Congress, given invited briefings to committees and sub-committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, delivered numerous invited presentations and keynote speeches, and authored more than 80 refereed scientific publications. He has chaired or served on various international and national committees, including those of the United Nations, National Research Council, National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and many other federal agencies.