Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation - Speed All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Environment - Non Weather Related
Approaching localizer for 16R between CELAK and BUGNE on a heading of 190 approach controller had flight crew fly thru localizer. Shortly after flying thru localizer controller assigned heading 130 and altitude down from 4000 to 3200 along with approach clearance. Just as aircraft was capturing 3200; coincidental with the glide path; we encountered wake turbulence from preceding 737 traffic that had joined localizer from the west side as well. After a few seconds of valiant effort the auto pilot kicked off in a fairly steep right bank; simultaneously we observed a brief (fraction of a second) stick shaker and the low speed cue briefly spiking up 10-15 knots. As pilot flying I already had my hands on the controls and immediately pitched forward and added some power. I did not initiate the stall recovery procedure; contrary to my training; as it was quite obvious that this was not a true low speed event; low speed cue returned to an acceptable spot and good aircraft control was present. It should be noted that we had acquired the airport environment visually shortly before the event. Additionally the ref speed switch was selected to increase at the time of the event. We selected ref speeds off shortly after the event as the airframe was free of contamination and I believe it was free of contamination prior to the event; we just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I don't believe that I was more than 100 feet below last assigned altitude or more than one dot below glide path at any time during or immediately after the event.I believe the cause of this event was the approach controller's tight vectoring of our flight behind preceding traffic which I feel must have been a little high on the approach. My expectation of the ATC system providing adequate clearance between IFR aircraft may have contributed to this event. Additionally the high workload associated with the late turn kept me from monitoring the altitudes of preceding TCAS targets. This is not procedure that I'm aware of but has been proven to be good practice in busy airport environments.
Turboprop First Officer reported momentary stick shaker after encountering wake turbulence in trail of a B737 on approach to SEA.