Member Jack Williams honored by Academy of Science

The Washington Academy of Sciences presented NPC Silver Owl member Jack Williams a “Special Award for the Public Understanding of Science” at a dinner on May 8 at the Sphinx Club in downtown Washington, D.C.

The award cites Williams's contributions as founding editor of the influential USA Today weather page and as author or co-author of six popular books on meteorology. The society also presented Williams a Certificate of Fellowship in recognition of outstanding achievements and contributions in the field of public understanding of science.

Williams was a copy editor at the Gannett Corporation’s Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle when Gannett assigned him to work during 1981 and early 1982 in planning Gannett’s proposed new national newspaper -- USA Today -- which was to include a full page of weather. When the paper began publication on Sept. 15, 1982, he was the weather editor. After retiring from the newspaper in 2005 he worked for the American Meteorological Society in Washington until 2009. He is now a freelance writer and regular contributor to the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang blog.