Knauss and Athelstan Spilhaus, dean at University of Minnesota and head of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Oceanography, worked to establish the National Sea Grant Program, cooperating with Senator Claiborne Pell, the sponsor of the National Sea Grant Program Act in 1966. The National Sea Grant College Program and Act was signed into law on October 15, 1966.[3] The Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship, named in his honor, provides a unique educational and professional experience to graduate students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources, matching highly qualified graduate students with "hosts" in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C., area, for a one-year paid fellowship.[5]
Knauss served as President of the American Geophysical Union from 1998 to 2000, and was awarded the Waldo E. Smith medal for "extraordinary service to geophysics" in 2006.[7]