William Hooke

William H. Hooke is associate executive director of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), where he has been a senior policy fellow since 2000, directing the AMS Policy Program from 2001-2013. He has published widely on atmospheric wave dynamics, remote sensing, and natural hazards science and policy as an atmospheric scientist. He worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1967-2000 in a series of research and management positions, including deputy chief scientist and acting chief scientist. Hooke also served as a senior scientist to then Commerce-Secretary William Daley. Between 1993 and 2000, he chaired the U.S. Interagency Subcommittee for Natural Disaster Reduction, operated out of the White House. He was a member of the International Science Council (ICSU) Planning Group on Natural and Human-induced Environmental Hazards and Disasters, 2006-2008, and subsequently a member of the ICSU/Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Scientific Steering Committee, 2008-2009. Hooke was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2006, a National Associate of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences in 2008, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2015. In 2014 he received the AMS Joanne Simpson Mentorship Award; he was named an Honorary Member of the AMS in 2021.

Hooke holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Swarthmore College; a master's degree in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago; and a PhD in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago. Hooke is the author of Living on the real world: How thinking and acting like meteorologists will help save the planet (AMS, 2014) and blogs at Living on the Real World.