Trump picks Neil Jacobs to lead NOAA

By Daniel Cusick | 02/04/2025 01:51 PM EST

If confirmed by the Senate, Jacobs would return to an agency he led during the first Trump administration, including during the infamous “Sharpiegate” incident.

Neil Jacobs, then the acting administrator for NOAA, speaks at NOAA's 2019 Hurricane Season Outlook press conference.

President Donald Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs to again lead NOAA. Win McNamee/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump has picked NOAA veteran Neil Jacobs, who served as an acting administrator during the first Trump presidency, to take the helm of the climate, weather and oceans agency.

Jacobs currently works for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, where he is chief science adviser to NOAA’s Unified Forecast System.

The nomination was submitted Monday to Congress, according to Congress.gov.

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Jacobs was considered to be among a small handful of prospective candidates to lead the 12,000-person agency. People within the agency and outside observers had also speculated that Trump could tap Ruth Mullins Perry, head of regulatory affairs for Shell’s domestic offshore power division and a member of NOAA’s Science Advisory Board.

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