A brief biographyWillis E. Howard, III, also known as Bill, was born in Oklahoma City in 1948, although much of his childhood was spent in Huntsville, Alabama. He obtained a B.S. from Samford University and then a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1976. Much of his thesis work in physical chemistry, quantum theory and laser spectroscopy was performed at the Technical University of Munich in Germany. His travels have also taken him to England, Ireland, Wales, Bahamas, France, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Bill did postdoctoral work at the University of California in Irvine and went to Bayer Corporation in 1979. Now at Siemens starting in 2007, he has worked in the areas of fluorescence and reflectance spectroscopy, algorithm development, software validation, optical engineering, and systems engineering. In his free time, Bill can be found reading, listening to music, eating Chinese food, programming his home computer, investing in real estate, or racing his personal water vehicle up and down the river. He is fluent in German, and would like to learn Chinese. He enjoys his home on the river in Elkhart, Indiana, as well as occasional visits to the beaches of Daytona. Updated June 2, 2023 |