Longtime Norwich University Biology Professor Lauren Howard was inducted as a fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences (VAAS) at the annual VAAS Fellows Luncheon held in Middlebury in September.
Howard joined the Norwich University Biology Department in 1976 and was named a professor in 1993. He has served as chair of the department (1991-2006), dean of the summer school (1991), associate vice president for Academic Affairs (1990-91) and chaired a number of important university committees including the University Curriculum Planning Committee and the original General Education Task Force.
He is an expert in botany, specifically on woody plants, and has established an important herbarium at Norwich. A recipient of the Homer L. Dodge Teaching Award in 1979, he remains an outstanding teacher, a strong colleague and a mentor of new faculty. Howard enhanced the teaching efforts of the biology program by producingPrinciples of Biology Lab Manual for use in classes.
Howard has been an active member of the VAAS board since 1988, serving as president three times (for a total of 12 years), vice president for five years and is currently acting treasurer. His citation read: “For your outstanding teaching and mentoring of students and colleagues over a period of more than thirty years; for sharing your knowledge, through lecturing and writing about the botanical world; and for your selfless volunteer work with the Academy and other organizations, we are honored to welcome you as a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences with all of the rights, privileges and responsibilities thereof.”
“It was certainly a surprise and honor to be named a fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences,” said Professor Lauren Howard. “Having been on the VAAS board for 25 years, I have seen the wonderful work the society has done.”
Other recipients of the honor this year are writers Chris Bohjalian and Julia Alvarez, artist Sabra Field and scientist A. Paul Krapcho.
The Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences was organized in October 1965. Its mission is: "To foster wider and more intensive participation in the arts, humanities and sciences within the State of Vermont, to make the values of these fields more accessible to the people of the State, and to stimulate achievement and promote excellence of instruction in these areas."
Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
