By Paul Fain

Eric J. Barron, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, is Florida State University's next president. The university's Board of Trustees selected Mr. Barron, an alumnus, on Tuesday from among 26 applicants. He will succeed T.K. Wetherell, an outspoken and well-connected president who announced his resignation in June.

Jim Smith, the board's chairman, said Mr. Barron would help build on gains that Florida State made as a graduate research university during Mr. Wetherell's tenure.

"His national prominence in his field, his extensive fund-raising experience, and his superlative administrative skills are an excellent fit for Florida State," Mr. Smith said in a written statement.

Mr. Barron, who is 58, has led the National Center for Atmospheric Research since July 2008. The agency, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, works with universities on research related to climate change and severe weather. Before taking that job, Mr. Barron had been a dean at the University of Texas at Austin and Pennsylvania State University at University Park. He holds a bachelor's degree from Florida State, as well as master's and doctoral degrees in oceanography from the University of Miami.

Florida State officials praised Mr. Barron's efforts to cope with budget challenges at the atmospheric-research center. He will have to put those skills to work at Florida State, which has struggled from years of severe state budget cuts, with more on the way.

A Very Public Search

The pool of 26 applicants for the position is small for such a high-profile job. The state's money problems might have scared off some applicants, and higher-education insiders say Florida's strict open-records laws may also have contributed to the light turnout.

Academic Search Inc., the company that handled Mr. Barron's hiring, posted the application packages of all 26 job seekers on its Web site in recent weeks, including cover letters. As of last week, none of the applicants were sitting college presidents. Three of them, including Mr. Barron, were invited to the campus for interviews, videos from which were posted on the university's Web site.

The search committee recommended Mr. Barron as the only finalist for the job. That lack of options concerned some trustees.

"Never in my dreams did I think the number would be one," one board member, Harold Knowles, told the St. Petersburg Times. "The problem I've got is not Dr. Barron. My concern is that we did not cast a broad enough net to get others like him."

Mr. Barron has a tough act to follow in Mr. Wetherell. A former state lawmaker, Mr. Wetherell was a highly visible advocate for the university and for higher education at the State Capitol in Tallahassee, which is about six blocks from Florida State's campus.

The university's president since 2003, Mr. Wetherell recently oversaw the resolution of one of the university's most hotly debated issues: the departure of football coach Bobby Bowden, who announced his resignation last week, reportedly under pressure from Mr. Wetherell. Mr. Bowden, who is 80, has coached the team since 1976.