From the AMS Web Site

William H. Hooke, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP) Office, will join the American Meteorological Society (AMS) as senior policy fellow and associate director of the Society's Atmospheric Policy Program, the organization announced recently. Hooke will begin at the AMS Washington, D.C., office June 5, 2000.

The AMS Atmospheric Policy Program, underway since October 1999, is a unique initiative designed to foster research, education and discussion about issues and policies related to the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences. Specifically, the program supports scholarly research efforts and forums to address important policy questions and encourage informed policy decisions. In addition, the Program will conduct workshops, seminars, and colloquia on policy issues aimed at today's meteorology students and mid-career scientists. Dr. Richard S. Greenfield is the director of the Atmospheric Policy Program. In January 2000, Dr. Robert W. Corell joined the Program as a senior fellow.

"The knowledge and experience in shaping public policy that Bill Hooke brings to the AMS Atmospheric Policy Program greatly expand the services that we can provide to the atmospheric sciences community," said Greenfield. "Bill will play a central role in our efforts to forge effective partnerships with academia, relevant government agencies, and the private sector to address significant policy issues and to develop policy-relevant educational activities."

"Drs. Greenfield, Corell, and Hooke place our Atmospheric Policy Program in a position to bring broad public policy expertise to bear on important atmospheric and related scientific issues," said Ronald McPherson, AMS executive director. "I anticipate that the results of their efforts will be important at the national level."

After almost 33 years of federal service, Hooke will retire on June 3, 2000. His NOAA tenure includes 20 years of research and research management in Boulder, Colorado. The last three of those years he led what is now NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory, which played a pivotal role in systems development for the National Weather Service Modernization. He moved to Washington in 1987, where he was Deputy Chief Scientist of NOAA until 1993.

For the past five years, while directing the USWRP, he also chaired the White House National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction. In that role he coordinated the efforts of 19 federal agencies to reduce losses from extreme events, and led a major partnership bringing together the federal government, insurers, non-governmental organizations and academia to highlight these issues for policymakers in the Executive Branch and Congress. He played an important role in U.S. formulation of and participation in the United Nations' International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.

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