Roger Barry

Roger Barry, Distinguished Professor and longtime University of Colorado (CU) faculty member passed away March 19, 2018, at the age of 82.

Barry had lifelong research interests ranging widely from polar climates to mountain climates to climate change. He was the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) 1976-2008 and supervised 67 graduate students.

At NSIDC, Barry contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments in 1990, 1995, and 2001. He served as a review editor for IPCC Working Groups 1 and 2 in 2007, an effort that earned the IPCC the Nobel Peace Prize.

Other honors for Barry included Lifetime Career Awards from the Climate and Mountain Specialty groups of the Association of American Geographers, Fellowship from the American Geophysical Union, the Goldthwait Polar Medal from the Byrd Polar Research Center, the Founder’s Medal from London’s Royal Geographic Society, the Humboldt Prize from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, a J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and Distinguished Professor of Geography from CU.

He was the author of hundreds of articles and an avid author and co-author of textbooks, including Atmosphere Weather and Climate, Synoptic and Dynamic Climatology, Mountain Weather and Climate, The Global Cryosphere, and Essentials of the Earth’s Climate System. His final book, focusing on polar environments, will be published posthumously.

Roger earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Liverpool in 1957, a master’s degree from McGill University in 1959, and a doctorate from the University of Southampton in 1965.

A summer celebration of life will be held in Boulder.