Eric J. Barron
Eric J. Barron (born October 26, 1951) is an American academic administrator who served as the 18th president of Pennsylvania State University from May 2014 to May 2022. Before Penn State, he was the 14th president of Florida State University (2010–2014) and the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado (2008–2010).
Barron was born in Lafayette, Indiana. He earned a BS in geology from Florida State University in 1972, and an MS in oceanography and a PhD in oceanography from the University of Miami (MS 1976, PhD 1980). His career includes postdoctoral research at NCAR (1980–85), an associate professorship at the University of Miami (1985–86), and a long tenure at Pennsylvania State University starting in 1986 in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, where he became dean until 2006. He then moved to the University of Texas at Austin as dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences, holding the Jackson chair in earth system science. In 2008 he left UT Austin to become director of NCAR (2008–2010), after which he was named president of Florida State University in December 2009.
As Penn State president, Barron resided in Schreyer House and focused on reforming the university’s Greek life following the death of Tim Piazza. He announced his intent to retire in 2022, and his tenure ended in May 2022 when Neeli Bendapudi took over.
Barron is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has chaired many committees for NSF, NASA and the NRC, including the NRC climate research committee, the NRC board on atmospheric sciences and climate, and NASA's Earth Observing System science executive committee.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:00 (CET).