West Central Florida AMS Local Chapter

Application:

Nominations of exceptional students for the Dr. Dewey Stower's Merit Award, pursuing a career in Meteorology, should be submitted no later than (February 1st), and emailed to the Chapter President, who will forward the nominations to the Scholarship committee.  Students considered for this award are to be nominated by Professors only. 

Every year at the AMS banquet a special monetary award is presented to an outstanding local college meteorology student. The Dr. Dewey M. Stowers Award for Excellence in Meteorology, known as the Dr. Dewey Stowers Merit Award, was established in 2002 to recognize and honor exceptional students in meteorology. It also commemorates Dr. Stowers himself, who affected the lives of so many students over his extensive teaching career.

Dr. Stowers joined the faculty of the Department of Geography at the University of South Florida in 1963, where he established its weather station. By the time of his retirement as a full professor in 1992, the USF Weather Station was considered the finest university weather station in the southeastern United States.

Dr. Stowers was a fixture in the Tampa Bay area weather community and became one of the founding members of the West Central Florida AMS chapter. Many local broadcast meteorologists passed (and struggled) through his courses and he was frequently approached for comment by local media sources whenever an extreme weather event occurred. Indeed, Dr. Stowers was often referred in the local weather community as "The Grand Old Man of Tampa Bay Weather".

Dr. Stowers, however, is best remembered for the powerful impact he had on his students during his tenure at USF. In addition to authoring over 40 scientific papers on weather phenomena, many with graduate students, he taught the senior-level meteorology and climatology courses for the Department of Geography for 30 years. Known as a tough and demanding professor, he also developed the reputation for challenging his students to achieve their very best.

It was with deep appreciation for the positive influence he had on their lives that several former students established the Dr. Dewey M Stowers Foundation in 2002 for the purpose of funding the annual award in perpetuity. Dr. Stowers lost a lengthy and courageous battle with cancer in 2007, but his ability to inspire students will continue through his award.