Christopher Stephen Bretherton is an American atmospheric scientist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington (UW), where he held joint appointments in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Applied Mathematics. He has contributed to understanding cloud processes, climate modeling, and advancing the integration of machine learning into climate simulations. Bretherton was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 and is a recipient of the American Meteorological Society's Jule G. Charney Award. In 2019, he transitioned to industry, becoming senior director of climate modeling at Vulcan Inc. and later at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), where he led efforts to integrate machine learning into climate models.
Born in Cambridge England, he is the son of Psychologist Inge Kornrumpf Bretherton and Mathematician Francis Bretherton. Bretherton earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1980. He completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984, where his doctoral thesis focused on modeling moist convection.
Bretherton joined the University of Washington in 1985 as an assistant professor. He became a full professor in 1996, holding joint appointments in atmospheric sciences and applied mathematics. From 2006 to 2011, he directed UWâÂÂs Program on Climate Change.
In 2019, he transitioned to industry, becoming senior director of climate modeling at Vulcan Inc. and later at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), where he led efforts to integrate machine learning into climate models.
Bretherton is married to Alison Cullen, a professor at UWâÂÂs Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. During a 2016âÂÂ2017 sabbatical, he collaborated with institutions including MIT, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.