Willis E. Howard, III, Ph.D. (Bill)

Contact information:

• Cell: +1 574-361-0803
• Fax: +1 574-830-1060

Personal information:

• Born in the USA, in 1948.

Education: 

• B.S. with Honors cum laude with major in Chemistry and minors in Math and Economics, Samford University, Birmingham, AL, 1970. Undergraduate thesis: "Spectroscopic Determination of Tungsten."
• M.S. in Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1972.
• Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Thesis research was conducted in Technical University of Munich, Germany under the direction of Dr. E.W.Schlag. Thesis "Rotational Structure in Intersystem Crossing", 1978.
• Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of California, Irvine, June 1978 to December 1979.

Employment:

December 1979 to 2006: Bayer Corporation.

2007 to present: Siemens AG. The acquisition of the Bayer Healthcare Diagnostics Division by Siemens was completed on January 2, 2007. The new division is now known as Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics.

Major job responsibilities past and present are listed as follows. New products under development are neither listed nor referenced.

• New product development, ongoing. 
• Clinitek Novus Product Support 2020 to present.
• Clinitek Status+ Product Support. 
• Clinitek Status System Integration Engineer. 
• Clinitek ATLAS Product Support Team Lead 2006 to 2022.
• Clinitek 50, Clinitek 100 and DCA 2000+ instrument Lead, 2007 to present.
• Technical Review Board member, Clinitek Advantus, 2004-2006 (link in German only).
• Member of the Mishawaka Validation Approval Team, to review and approve Validation Plans and Validation Reports relating to all product or process change, 2005 to 2006.
• Clinitek Status CORE team member for System Integration: 2002 to present.  Developer of the Wavelength Correction Model for Clinitek Status LEDs and the Clinitek Status Instrument Error Budget.
• Member of the Near Patient Testing Common Software Process Team to consolidate software procedures among multiple sites, 2003.
• CPAT member for DCA 2000+, Clinitek 50, Clinitek 100, and Clinitek 500 instruments 2002 to present.
• Leader of Clinitek 500 IVDD team, and member of DCA 2000+ IVDD team, 2002-2003.
• Optical Design of Clinical Diagnostic Systems: 1986 to 2001. Lead Optical Engineer on projects including SERALYZER 1A, Whole Blood LMA, CLINITEK 200+, ATLAS, CLINITEK 50 and CLINITEK 500 instruments. Divisional 1998 Technology Award for the Clinitek 50 optical system. Divisional 2000 Technology Award for the Clinitek 500 instrument system.
• Project Engineer of Clinical Diagnostic Systems: 1994 to 2000. Project Engineer for CLINITEK 500 and ATLAS Rack Sample Handler.
• CLINITEK 100 Software Project Manager: 1994-1995, 1999-2000. Responsibilities include definition of software requirements and specifications, selection and design of replacement ADC, coordination of software coding and validation for software upgrades for current products, for the new ADC, and for new immunoformat reagent strips. Author of immunotest format specification document. New Multiple Clinitek 100 Software Manager.
• Software Validation of Clinifacts 200 Data Management System on EPSON HX-40, IBM PC and UNIX systems: 1985.
• Development of clinical algorithms and system performance evaluation for diagnostic tests: 1983 to 1985.
• Development of laboratory reflectance instrumentation for diagnostic tests: 1982 to 1983.
• Development of laboratory fluorescence instrumentation for diagnostic tests: 1980 to 1981.

Other Areas of Experience include electronics, software, systems modeling, engineering, business, finance, risk analysis, requirements analysis, and project management:

Business Management includes Board of Directors, Lena Realty, Inc., Member,Howard, Hung, Lin & Swank, LLC, and Member, One Stop Mortgage, LLC.

Business Training includes Functional Manager, Problem Solving and Decision Analysis, ISO 9000, Core Team Leader Workshop, Customer Excellence, Project Management, Five Hour MBA, Risk Management, Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and Goldratt's Theory of Constraints.

Technical Training includes Optical Systems Design, Software Verification and Validation, Design of Experiments, Computer Vision, Stray light analysis, Miniature optics and beam-shaping, High collection efficiency non-imaging optics, and Requirements Engineering.

Optical Design

• Design of optical systems for commercial fluorescence and reflectance instrumentation.
• Nitrogen and flashlamp pumped dye lasers with intracavity etalon, interference filters or gratings, with frequency doubling and temporal modification.
• Design of absorption and fluorescence cells for gas phase measurements.
• System integration of device for optical determination of specific gravity.

Theory:

• Calculation of 1 and 2 photon absorption spectra for symmetric and asymmetric rotors.
• Quantum mechanical theory and calculation of the rotational effect on intersystems crossing and internal conversion in gas phase molecules. Rovibronic selection rules for multiphoton absorption and linewidth effects on absorption coefficients.

Computer Software: Programming languages include Visual C++ with MFC, C, Perl, Office VBA, HTML, ASP, JavaScript, BASIC, PLM, SAS, FORTRAN, Assembly Language for PDP-11, 8080 and 80x86. Programming environments include TSO, RSX-11, CP/M-80, varieties of UNIX, and Windows. Software applications developed include:

• Complete experimental data collection and process control in FORTRAN and assembly language on PDP-11 of a laser induced fluorescence instrument (part of Ph.D. thesis).
• REL/MAC, a commercial conversion utility in C that generates 8080 and Z80 source code from relocatable object code files.
• Complete data collection, evaluation, presentation and process control in BASIC for Rapid Scanner reflectance instrumentation (Divisional Science and Technology award).
• Development of software validation protocols for C programs (Clinifacts 200 Data Management System).
• Clinical instrumentation performance analysis in SAS.
• Computer algorithms for clinical systems.
• Modification of CLINITEK 100 code in PLM for measurement and evaluation of immunostrips.
• Risk Analysis, Objectives Management, Accounting, ISO 9000 Equipment Calibration Management, Timesheet, and Vacation Tracker applications in Excel Visual Basic for Applications.
• Notesafe.encryption text editor for Windows in MFC.
• Webmaster for Lena Realty, Inc. and the RTLIST.

Computer Hardware:

• Interfacing for data collection, communication and process control on PDP-11 systems, S-100, Multibus, PC, and embedded systems.
• Windows networking.

Languages:

During the five years I spent in Munich, Germany, I became fluent in German. 

Professional Societies:

• SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.

Publications: 

• W. E. Howard, H. L. Selzle and E. W. Schlag, "Digital Spectroscopy", J. of Phys. E: Sci. Inst., 8, 783 (1975).
• E. W. Schlag and W. E. Howard, "The Turnover Point: The Effects of Coupling and Lifetime Broadening in Excited States", in Molecular Energy Transfer, ed. R. Levine and J. Jortner, (John Wiley, NY, 1975).
• W. E. Howard and E. W. Schlag, "Sharp Resonances in Radiationless Transitions", Z. Naturforsh., 31a, 399 (1976).
• W. E. Howard and E. W. Schlag, "High Resolution Laser Excitation in the Low Pressure Gas: Quantum Yields of Naphthalene", Chem. Phys., 17, 123 (1976).
• W. E. Howard and E. W. Schlag, "Rotational Selection Rules for Non-radiative Processes", J. Chem. Phys. 68, 2679 (1978).
• W. E. Howard and E. W. Schlag, "Rotational Dependence of Non-radiative Transitions: Naphthalene", Chem. Phys. 29, 1 (1978).
• F. Metz, W. E. Howard, L.Wunsch, H. J. Neusser and E. W. Schlag, "Theory of Two Photon Spectroscopy in the Gas Phase", Proc. Roy. Soc. Lon. A 363, 381 (1978).
• W. E. Howard and E. W. Schlag, "Rotational Fine Structure in Non-radiative Transitions", in Radiationless Transitions, Ch. 2, ed. S.H.Lin (Academic Press, NY, 1980).
• P. W. Fairchild, N. L. Garland, W. E. Howard, III and E. K. C. Lee, "A Fluorescence Monitor Method for Measuring Effective Absorption Coefficients of Molecular Rovibronic Transitions Using Tunable Dye Laser Excitation: The Case of Absorber Line Width Narrower than the Laser Line Width Applied to H2CO", J. Chem. Phys. 73, 3046 (1980).
• B. Walter, A. C. Greenquist and W. E. Howard, III, "Solid-Phase Reagent Strips for Detection of Therapeutic Drugs in Serum by Substrate-Labeled Fluorescence Immunoassay", Analytical Chemistry 55, 873 (1983).
• W. E. Howard, III, A. G. Greenquist, B. Walter and F. Wogoman, "Automated Instrumentation for Fluorescence Assays on Reagent Strips", Analytical Chemistry 55, 878 (1983).
• W. E. Howard, III, "The Outline Processor: A Tool for Program Design", Computer Language 4(1), 75 (1987).
• W. E. Howard, III, "An Introduction to Reflectance Spectroscopy for Dry Phase Reagent Chemistry", Miles Science Journal, 12(1), 33 (1990).
• J. Farr, W. E. Howard, III, and W. I. White, "Urine Specific Gravity: The First and the Latest", Miles Science Journal, 16(1), 31 (1994).
• W. E. Howard, III, "Writing Custom Help for VBA Applications", in Excel Expert Solutions, Chapter 27 , ed. Brian Underdahl (Que, Indianapolis, 1996).

Patents:

Patents issued:

• A. Dosmann, W. E. Howard, III, and A. Zembrod, U.S.Patent number 4,890,926 Jan. 2, 1990: "Improved Reflectance Photometer".
• David L. Hough, Willis E. Howard, III, and Donald L. Jaworski, U.S.Patent number 5,165,078 November 17, 1992: "Multi-channel, multi-wavelength detection system".
• Willis E. Howard, III, Dijia Huang, Robert W. Rogers, Gerald H. Shaffer and Mark A. Yoder, U.S.Patent 5,408,535 April 18, 1995: "Video test strip reader and method for evaluating test strips."
• Willis E. Howard, III; Marilyn Radtke, Gary E. Rehm, U.S.Patent 5,654,803 August 5, 1997: "Apparatus and method for determination of non-hemolyzed levels of occult blood".
• Willis E. Howard, III and G. Shaffer, U.S. Patent 5,661,563 August 26, 1997: "Reflectance Spectroscope with Read Head for Minimizing Singly-Reflected Light Rays".
• Willis E. Howard, III and Gary Rehm, U.S.Patent 5,724,148 March 3, 1998: "Apparatus and Method for Determination of Color".
• Willis E. Howard, III, U.S.Patent 5,945,341 August 31, 1999: "System for the Optical Identification of Coding on a Diagnostic Strip".
• Willis E. Howard, III, Stacie Koepke, and Eric Miller, U.S.Patent D0418497 January 4, 2000: Icon for a Screen.
• Willis E. Howard, Gary Rehm and Gary Shaffer, U.S.Patent 6,180,409 January 30, 2001: "Spectroscopic apparatus with Multiple Readheads".
• Dave Hough, Willis E. Howard, III, Richard Hurtle, and Gary Rehm, U.S.Patent 6,261,522 July 17, 2001: "Spectroscopic apparatus with Reagent Strip Detection".
• Willis E Howard, III, U.S.Patent 7,254,503 August 7, 2007: "Light source wavelength correction".

Trade secrets:

• "... color determination", classified as a Trade Secret on August 29, 1990. Implemented in CLINITEK ATLAS.
• "... correction for color ...", W. Howard and G. Rehm. classified as Trade Secret in September, 1999. Implemented on Phase 4 Software Release of CLINITEK 500.

Other :

• Chairman of the Miles Science Forum, now known as Making Science Make Sense, in 1990.
• 1997 Bayer Healthcare Technology Award: CLINITEK 50 Optical System
• 1999 Bayer Healthcare Technology Award: CLINITEK 500 System.
• Eleven Special Recognition Awards, including the areas of Innovation, Change, Teamwork, Leadership, Customer, Business Goals and Beliefs, Quality, Safety, and Overcoming Complexity.

Updated  June 2, 2023
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