Ronald J. Stouffer is a senior research meteorologist in the Climate Dynamics and Prediction Group of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), Princeton, N.J. GFDL is a federal research laboratory within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Widely considered one of the leading climate modelers in the world, Stouffer uses complex numerical models to study and predict the behavior of the earth's climate system. Stouffer studies past, present and future climates. Because of his scientific contributions to climate research over the past 25 years, he has been a central contributor to each of the assessment reports for the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations sponsored activity.

Stouffer first came to GFDL in 1977 from the Pennsylvania State University, where he received both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in meteorology. He has published more than 70 papers on climate and climate change, including a number of ground-breaking papers. In addition to his responsibilities as IPCC chapter author, Stouffer is a member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Coupled Model Intercomparison Panel (CMIP) and an editor of the journal Climate Dynamics, and he has received a number of awards, including the WMO Norbert Gerbier-Mumm International Award (1999); the NOAA Administrator's Award (1996); and four NOAA Distinguished Authorship Awards. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society and of the American Geophysical Union.