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Alan Howard

Alan Howard portrait
Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Quality Assurance).

Research centres and groups

 

Background

I serve as both Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Quality Assurance) and Professor of Geography at the University of Reading. In addition to my university roles, I am an expert academic assessor for the Office for Students, an institutional reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), and a member of the Royal Geographical Society’s programme accreditation panel.

As a recognised quality review expert, I have conducted around 30 QAA institutional reviews, spanning a diverse array of institutions, including Russell Group universities, further education colleges, and specialist higher education providers. I have also served as a QAA appeals panellist, an assessor for degree-awarding powers, and as a Gateway Quality Reviewer for the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. My current work includes ongoing assessments for the Office for Students and institutional reviews for the QAA.

I remain dedicated to teaching and supporting students across all undergraduate years, including delivering modules on energy and water resources. I have led residential undergraduate and postgraduate field classes in the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, and China.

While my current focus is on my university leadership role as APVC (Quality Assurance), teaching, and external engagements, I continue to publish academic articles, most recently in collaboration with Professor Defu Xu and colleagues at the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) in China.

Beyond academia, I am the author of the official biography of singer-songwriter Don McLean and participated as his biographer in the BBC 2 Classic Albums episode on American Pie.

Academic qualifications

BSc; PhD (Leeds)

Howard, A. & Easthope, M.P. (2002) Application of a model to predict cyanobacteria patterns in response to climatic change at Farmoor Reservoir, Oxfordshire, UK, The science of the Total Environment 282-283, 459-469.

Howard, A. (2001) Modelling movement patterns of the cyanobacterium, Mic. Ecological Applications 304-310.

Howard, A. (1999) Algal Modelling: Processes and Management, Introduction, Hydrobiologia 414, 35-37.

Easthope, M.P. & Howard, A. (1999) Implementation and sensitivity analysis of a model of cyanobacterial movement and growth, Hydrobiologia, 414, 53-58.

Howard, A. (1999) (ed) Algal Modelling: Processes & Management 414.

Easthope, M.P. & Howard, A.(1999) Modelling algal dynamics in a lowland impoundment, Science of the Total Environment. 241, 17-25.

Howard, A. (1998) Cyanobacteria (Blue-green algae), in Herschy, R.G. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Hydrology and Water Resources, Chapman & Hall, 147-149.

Howard, A. (1998) Toxic cyanobacterial blooms, in Rose, J. (ed) Environmental Toxicology: Current Developments, Volume 7, 345-357. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers.

Kneale, P.E. & Howard, A. (1997) Statistical analysis of algal and water quality data, Hydrobiologia, 347: 59-63.

Whitehead, P.G. Howard, A. & Arulmani, C. (1997) Modelling algal growth and transport in rivers: a comparison of time series analysis, dynamic mass balance, and neural network techniques, Hydrobiologia, 347: 39-46.

Howard, A. (1997) Computer simulation modelling of buoyancy change in Microcystis, Hydrobiologia, 349: 111-117.

Howard, A. (1997) Algal Modelling: Processes & Management. Editorial Preface. Hydrobiologia, 349:vii-ix.

Howard, A. Irish, A.E. & Reynolds, C.S. (1996) SCUM '96: A new simulation of cyanobacterial underwater movement, Journal of Plankton Research, 18, 1375-1385.

Howard, A. McDonald, A.T. Kneale, P.E. & Whitehead, P.G. (1996) Cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) blooms in the UK: A review of the current situation and potential management options, Progress in Physical Geography, 20, 63-81.

Publications

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