Francis Clark Howell

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Clark Howell.
Francis Clark Howell
Born(1925-11-27)November 27, 1925
University of California at Berkeley

Francis Clark Howell (November 27, 1925 – March 10, 2007), generally known as F. Clark Howell, was an American anthropologist.

Born in

Sherwood L. Washburn
.

Dr. Howell died of metastatic lung cancer on March 10, 2007, at age 81 at his home in Berkeley, California.

Academic career

Howell began his career in the Anatomy Department of Washington University in St. Louis in 1953, and stayed there for only two years before moving back to his alma mater, the University of Chicago. He went on to spend the next 25 years of his career there in the Department of Anthropology. He achieved a professorship in 1962 and became chairman of the department in 1966. In 1970, Howell moved to the University of California, Berkeley following his mentor Washburn. This time he stayed for good, remaining a professor and then an emeritus until his death.

Howell's early work focused on

Ambrona
which are 300,000 to 400,000 years old. At none of these sites did he find skeletal material however. That had to wait until he worked on lower
radioisotope
techniques.

Other interests

Howell was an proponent for scientific research of all kinds and strongly believed in popularizing science. He demonstrated this through many of his non-academic interests and efforts.

Howell was instrumental in the creation of the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. Subsequently, he served the Foundation as Science Advisor, Chairman of the Science and Grants committee, and then trustee until his death. Howell also played significant roles in several other evolution and natural sciences organizations including the

University of California at Berkeley, which he co-managed for over thirty years with his colleague Tim D. White. Howell was also a science advisor and later president, trustee and fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.[4]

Since 2013, Howell has been listed on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.[5]

At various times, Howell served on the editorial boards of Encyclopædia Britannica, World Book/Childcraft and Science Year, National Geographic and Time-Life Books (now part of Time Warner).

Finally, Howell wrote a popular mainstream book on human evolution, Early Man,

March of Progress (illustration)
).

In February 2007 one month before his death he sat down for interviews totaling 8 hours[7] with Samuel Redman of the Bancroft Library's Oral History Center.

Honors

Howell was a member of the United States' National Academy of Sciences,[8] the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[9] and the American Philosophical Society.[10] He was also a member or fellow of the science institutes and academies of France, Britain and South Africa. He received the Charles Darwin Award for lifetime achievement from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists[11] and the Leakey Prize in 1998 from the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation. The California Academy of Sciences awarded him its Fellows Medal[12] in 1990.

At least seven extinct species are named for him. The species name howelli designates two mollusks, two ancestral species of civet cats, one hyena, an ancestral antelope and a primate of the loris family.

Writings

In addition to Early Man, a volume of the Life Nature Library, Howell wrote more than 200 scientific papers and reviews.

  • Chapter on Hominidae in Evolution of African Mammals, edited by Vincent Maglio and Basil Cooke (1978).

References

  1. ^ "Stone Age Institute". October 15, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-15.
  2. ^ "Home page | Institute of Human Origins". iho.asu.edu.
  3. ^ "Home". herc.berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on 2009-06-14. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  4. ^ "California Academy of Sciences". California Academy of Sciences.
  5. ^ "Advisory Council". ncse.com. National Center for Science Education. Archived from the original on 2013-08-10. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  6. ^ Howell, Francis Clark (January 1, 1970). "Early man". Time-Life Books – via Amazon.
  7. ^ "F. Clark Howell: Modernizing Physical Anthropology through Fieldwork, Science, and Collaboration - Oral History Center - UC Berkeley Library". Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2019-09-11.
  8. ^ "F. Clark Howell". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  9. ^ "Francis Clark Howell". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  10. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  11. ^ "Darwin Award". November 8, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-11-08.
  12. ^ "California Academy of Sciences - Research Division". November 3, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-11-03.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Francis_Clark_Howell&oldid=1192112448"