Dr. Bette Otto-Bliesner is a Senior Scientist at the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, USA. She serves as the Head of NCAR’s Paleoclimate Modeling Group guiding the development and application of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) by researchers worldwide for investigating past climates. Dr. Otto-Bliesner has investigated past climates and climate variability across a wide range of time scales.

Her current research projects combine insights from paleoclimate data and CESM paleoclimate simulations to provide insights into future weather and climate extremes and tipping points. She is using high-resolution versions of CESM to simulate past weather and climate extremes at regional scale and to study the physics drivers for the changes of extreme events of the global climate. Additionally, she is leading the development of a CMIP7 set of What-If scenarios to explore the local and remote impacts if the Earth system crosses tipping points, such as the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning or the dieback of the Amazon rainforest.

She has served on many national and international activities, including as a Lead Author for the IPCC Working Group I Assessment Reports in 2007 and 2013. She is currently co-leading the High-Risk Theme of the WCRP Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity. She is involved in the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) the Deep-Time Model Intercomparison Project (DeepMIP), projects that coordinate international climate model experiments addressing past climates relevant to understanding the future Earth system. Dr. Otto-Bliesner received a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.