William H. Hooke, Ph.D.

William H. Hooke is currently Associate Executive Director of the American Meteorological Society and Senior Policy Fellow. He directed the AMS Policy Program from July, 2001-April 2013.

His policy research interests include: natural disaster reduction; historical precedents as they illuminate present-day policy; and the nature and implications of changing national requirements for weather and climate science and services. He continues to direct the AMS Summer Policy Colloquium. He has blogged at Living on the Real World since 2010 and has just published a book: Living on the Real World: How Thinking and Acting Like Meteorologists Will Help Save the Planet.

From 1967 to 2000, he worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and antecedent agencies. After six years of research in fundamental geophysical fluid dynamics and its application to the ionosphere, the boundary layer, air quality, aviation, and wind engineering, he moved into a series of management positions of increasing scope and responsibility. From 1973 to 1980, he was Chief of the Wave Propagation Laboratory Atmospheric Studies Branch. From 1980 to 1983 he rotated through a series of management development assignments. From 1984 to 1987 he directed NOAA’s Environmental Sciences Group, responsible for much of the systems R&D for the NWS Modernization, as well as a range of other weather and climate research activities.

From 1987 to 1993 he served as the Deputy Chief Scientist and Acting Chief Scientist of NOAA, setting policy and direction for $300M/year of NOAA R&D in oceanography, atmospheric science, hydrology, climate, marine biology, and associated technologies.

Between 1993 and 2000, he held two national responsibilities: Director of the U.S. Weather Research Program Office, and Chair of the interagency Subcommittee for Natural Disaster Reduction of the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. During this period he also served eighteen months as Senior Scientist in the Office of the Secretary of Commerce.

Dr. Hooke was an ad joint faculty member at the University of Colorado from 1969 to 1987, and served as a fellow of two NOAA Joint Institutes (CIRES, 1971-1977; CIRA 1987-2000). He holds a B.S. (Physics Honors) from Swarthmore College (1964), and S.M. (1966) and Ph.D. (1967) degrees from the University of Chicago. He is a Fellow of the AMS and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2006.