David Easterling is currently Chief of the Scientific Services Division at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1987 and served as an Assistant Professor in the Climate and Meteorology Program, Department of Geography, Indiana University-Bloomington from 1987 to 1990. In 1990 he moved to the National Climatic Data Center as a research scientist, was appointed Principal Scientist in 1999, and Chief of Scientific Services in 2002. He has authored or co-authored more than sixty research articles in journals such as Science, Nature and the Journal of Climate. Dr. Easterling was also a contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Second and Third Assessment Reports, and is currently a Lead Author for the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. His research interests include the detection of climate change in the observed record, particularly changes in extreme climate events.