Atmospheric scientist Jared Bowden has been named director and state climatologist at the North Carolina State Climate Office (SCO), effective May 1. Bowden had been serving as interim director of the office since August 2025.

As director, Bowden leads one of the largest and most highly regarded state climate offices in the nation. The office, a UNC System Public Service Center that is part of the College of Sciences, serves all 100 counties in North Carolina and has a team of 10 full-time staff, plus support from graduate and undergraduate students.

SCO works to translate climate information into useful and usable knowledge, and bridges the gap between scientists, decision-makers and community members. The office’s work is aided by strong connections to climate-related units throughout campus and around the state, including the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, the Climate and Sustainability Academy, and the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies. Bowden is the sixth permanent director of the office, which was established in 1976 and has been stationed at NC State since 1980.

Bowden’s research expertise is in the application of atmospheric models, especially improving the accuracy of regional climate models used to produce high-resolution climate change projections. He has developed these projections for various parts of the world including the contiguous U.S., parts of the Caribbean, and Africa. He is a co-author on the fourth and fifth National Climate Assessment as well as Puerto Rico’s State of the Climate Report. He has worked closely with scientists and practitioners in various disciplines, including hydrology, engineering, ecology, air quality and epidemiology. Bowden is also a skilled climate science communicator who shares information with media and community members about enhancing extreme weather recovery and resilience and adapting to climate variability and change.

Bowden joined the office as its associate director in 2024. He previously served as a senior research scholar in the Department of Applied Ecology at NC State and as a research assistant professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is also a former National Research Council postdoctoral researcher who worked closely with scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Bowden is a three-time graduate of NC State, receiving his bachelor’s degrees in meteorology and marine sciences and his master’s degree and Ph.D. in atmospheric science. 

This post was originally published in College of Sciences News.