The award is the highest honor given by the AGU and is named in honor of William Bowie, one of the co-founders of the Union.
William Shakespeare | David Bowie | William Laud | Medal of Honor | William Blake | William | William III of England | William Morris | William McKinley | William Howard Taft | William Ewart Gladstone | William the Conqueror | William S. Burroughs | William Shatner | William Faulkner | William Randolph Hearst | William Wordsworth | William Tecumseh Sherman | Meritorious Service Medal (United States) | William Hogarth | Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | Meritorious Service Medal | Bronze Star Medal | William Penn | William Jennings Bryan | William Gibson | William Wilberforce | William James | William Makepeace Thackeray | Fort William |
Among his notable honors were the William Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union (1978), the Outstanding Achievement in Bioclimatology Award (1983) and the Cleveland Abbey Award (1983) of the American Meteorological Society, and the National Medal of Science (1985), presented to him by US President Ronald Reagan.