Gerald R. North (June 28, 1938 – ) is Distinguished Professor and Holder of the Harold J. Haynes Endowed Chair in Geosciences at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, and previous Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. His interests include climate change using simplified climate models. North was born in

Sweetwater, Tennessee Sweetwater is a city in Monroe and McMinn counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the most populous city in Monroe County. The population was 5764 at the 2010 census and 6,312 at the 2020 census. Sweetwater is the home of the Craighead C ...

to Sanford and Marjorie Hill North. He grew up in nearby

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

and received his Bachelor's Degree in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

. In 1966, he earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. After a two year post-doc at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, he obtained a tenure track position at the

University of Missouri-St. Louis A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

leading to full professor. He spent 1974–75 as a Senior Visiting Scientist at the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundatio ...

. He moved to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

in 1978 where he was the initial proposer and first Study Scientist for the

Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was a joint space mission between NASA and JAXA designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall. The term refers to both the mission itself and the satellite that the mission used to collect data. ...

. He joined Texas A&M University in 1986. In 2005 to 2006 he chaired a

United States National Research Council The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...

committee investigating surface temperature reconstructions for the last 2,000 years, set up at the request of Representative

Sherwood Boehlert Sherwood Louis Boehlert (September 28, 1936September 20, 2021) was an American politician from New York. He represented a large swath of central New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2007. Boehlert, a Republican, ...

, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science. Their report, published in July 2006, is known as the

North Report The North Report was a 2006 report evaluating reconstructions of the Temperature record of the past 1000 years, temperature record of the past two millennia, providing an overview of the state of the science and the implications for understanding of ...

. He is the 2008 recipient of the Jule Charney Award of the

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the Atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, Oceanography, oceanic, and Hydrology, hydr ...

. His sons, Joel North and Paul North, play in the

Denton, Texas Denton is a city in and the county seat of Denton County, Texas, United States. With a population of 139,869 as of 2020, it is the 27th-most populous city in Texas, the 197th-most populous city in the United States, and the 12th-most populous ...

based indie band Sleep Whale on

Western Vinyl Western Vinyl is an independent record label founded in 1998 and based in Austin, Texas. The imprint was formed by Brian Sampson and Ryan Murphy originally to release their lo-fi indie rock projects as Win Foster and Havergal. Artists *Abram Sh ...

records. He lives in

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East-Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin. ...

with his wife Laura. His Memoir ''The Rise of Climate Science'' was released in Spring 2021

External links

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, College of Geosciences TAMU
1938 births Living people People from Sweetwater, Tennessee American climatologists University of Pennsylvania staff University of Tennessee alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni University of Missouri–St. Louis people Texas A&M University faculty National Center for Atmospheric Research faculty {{climate-bio-stub