Rate My Professor Andrew Howells

Dr Andrew Howells serves as a Senior Lecturer in Natural History Illustration within the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a PhD and a Bachelor of Fine Art, both from the University of Newcastle. His doctoral thesis, titled Elephant: Art and Science, examined the convergence of artistic practice and scientific research in conservation science. Howells specializes in natural history illustration, with research interests spanning conservation science, digital and traditional illustration practice, drawing as enquiry, art and science collaborations, visual communication design including graphic design, and design practice and methods. He teaches in the Natural History Illustration program, covering studio studies, field studies, and scientific illustration courses. Prior to academia, he worked as Senior Graphic Designer at Creata Promotion Australia Pty Ltd from 2004 to 2005, bringing industry experience in animation, graphic design, and illustration.

Howells has led key projects including Activating Artifacts: Reviving, reintroducing and recontextualising the illustrated work of Margaret Senior (2024, lead, $10,000), International Illustration Research Network (2022, investigator, $14,000), Drawing Education Network (2020, investigator, $7,085), and Visualsing Humanities Research Project (2018-2020, lead, $15,398). His Elephant project created 60 illustrations to visually assess health conditions in captive Asian elephants, collaborating with veterinary scientists from Taronga Zoo and Fort Worth Zoo. Awards include the Faculty Award for Collaboration Excellence (2016), Vice Chancellor’s Award for Collaboration Excellence (2016), and edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning (2017). Notable publications encompass the book Observe, Research, Create: Case Studies in Natural History Illustration PhD Projects (2018), the chapter The Coffin of Mer-Neith-it-es: Justified (2022, co-authored with B. Drabsch and L. O’Donnell), and Blending Graphite with Pixels: Natural History Illustration Online (2019, co-authored with B. Drabsch and C. Lloyd). He co-curated exhibitions such as Illustrated and written by…: an exhibition of international peer-reviewed illustration research (2024) and SEEKING VISION: INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF ILLUSTRATION RESEARCH (2022), and delivered the public lecture The Mummy Project at Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney (2019). His contributions promote non-traditional research outcomes and cross-disciplinary visual communication in science and conservation.