William H. Hooke
Associate Executive Director and Senior Policy Fellow
American Meteorological Society
"Being Active in Policy with a Diverse Membership"
Abstract: The speaker will address this topic from the society perspective, focusing on how AMS approaches policy, given the full range of members’ diverse views on politics and policies. Given the limits to our advocacy, (fuzzily) restricted to general enthusiasm for advance of science and its application for societal benefit, STEM education, what do we do as a substitute? AMS develops consensus statements, hopefully in advance of emerging issues, and uses these as as a basis (or vocabulary) as those issues subsequently arise. For other topics that surface more rapidly, AMS has a process of Council consideration and approval that allows AMS to work with other societies or on its own to write or co-author letters to members of Congress, et al. AMS organizes Congressional Visit Days, on its own and in collaboration with others. Through our AMS Summer Policy Colloquium, AMS builds a reputation as a science society who comes to the Hill tol earn as much as to preach its message. This makes AMS unusual, and as a result, the Hill returns the favor--AMS is often invited to the Hill days to expand on its views on issues or legislation.
Hooke will also discuss an EoS op-ed that he wrote a couple of years ago (well before the current season of “troubles”): Reaffirming the Social Contract Between Science and Society.
Brief biography: Bill Hooke, an active AMS Member, an active Fellow of the AMS, and AMS Senior Policy Fellow, is Associate Executive Director of the American Meteorological Society, based in Washington, DC. Dr Hooke is the author of the AMS blog, Living on the Real World (blog), as well as the AMS book of the same name, Living on the Real World (book), 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. From 1967 to 2000, Dr Hooke worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its 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. His previous roles include: Chief of the Atmospheric Studies Branch of NOAA's Wave Propagation Laboratory; Director of NOAA's Environmental Sciences Group, which has evolved and grown to become the Earth System Research Laboratory; Deputy Chief Scientist and Acting Chief Scientist of NOAA, setting policy and direction for $300M/year of NOAA research and development in oceanography, atmospheric science, hydrology, climate, marine biology, and their associated technologies; Director of the United States 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.
Hooke was an adjoint faculty member at the University of Colorado, fellow of two NOAA Joint Institutes, and author of over fifty refereed publications. Dr Hooke has a BS degree in physics from Swarthmore College, and SM and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society. He chairs the NAS/NRC Disasters Roundtable, and serves on the International Council for Science Planning Group on Natural and Human-Induced Environmental Hazards and Disasters.