Bette Otto-Bliesner

In 2020, Jiang Zhu, Christopher Poulsen, and Otto-Bliesner published an analysis of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) which revealed that the model is overly sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and produces higher surface temperatures than would be predicted when the model is validated using historical data. The next IPCC assessment report will use CMIP6 in its predictions of future climate change, Otto-Bliesner noted "Figuring out whether the high climate sensitivity in CMIP6 models is realistic is of tremendous importance for us to anticipate future warming and to make adaptation plans”.

Otto-Bliesner has worked on multiple chapters in the Assessment Review reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its long series of such reports. She was one of the 16 lead authors on the 2007 chapter on "Paleoclimate". She was one of the 17 lead authors on the 2013 chapter on "Information from the Paleoclimate Archives".

Otto-Bliesner graduated from William Fremd High School in Palatine, Illinois in 1968. She has a B.S. in meteorology from the University of Madison-Wisconsin (1972). In 1974, she earned her M.S. from University of Wisconsin - Madison with a thesis titled "Isentropically time-averaged mass circulations in the Northern Hemisphere". She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, and was an associate scientist there from 1980 to 1986. After two years as a contract scientist at ARC Technologies, Otto-Bliesner joined the Department of Geology at the University of Texas at Arlington where she worked from 1990 to 1996. She joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 1997 where she was promoted to senior scientist in 2007.