For his scientific work Janjic received the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Research Award for Encouragement of Young Scientists from RA VI (Europe) (1978) and the WMO Borivoje Dobrilović Trust Fund Research Award in Meteorology (1981). In 2007, Janjic received Francis W. Reichelderfer Award of the American Meteorological Society:
“For outstanding contributions to developments and implementation of NCEP limited-area weather prediction models (Eta and NMM). The numerical and parameterization schemes he developed ideally combine theoretical and technical solutions, as well as a balance between elegance and practicality.”
In 2012, he was awarded the World Meteorological Organization’s most prestigious award 57th IMO Prize in Geneva:
“In recognition of his outstanding life-long contributions to the advancement of theory and practice of atmospheric modeling and numerical weather prediction, and, in particular, for the development of generations of atmospheric models based on his innovative numerical and parameterization schemes that have been used for research and weather forecasting all over the world inspiring the work of many scientists and producing forecasts reaching millions of users.”
WMO Award
This award is the meteorology equivalent of the Fields Medal in mathematics or the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Previous winners of this Prize include prominent scientists such as Edward N. Lorenz, Jacob Bjerknes, Carl-Gustaf A. Rossby and Jule G. Charney.
The IMO Prize came with a golden Medal and 10.000 Swiss Francs cash award that Janjic used to start the Zavisa Janjic Award fund, governed by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art. The Award Prof. Dr. Zavisa Janjic is a monetary award dedicated to support outstanding meteorological students in numerical weather prediction at the universities in Serbia. Following Prof. Dr. Janjic’s death on March 31st, 2019, the fund received many generous donations from his colleagues and family.