Howard C. Howland

Howard Chase Howland, a Cornell University neurophysiologist who studied the eyes of all creatures great and small, died on October 26, 2025, in Ithaca, New York. He was 92.

A longtime professor in Cornell’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, he pioneered with his older brother Bradford the science behind aberrometers – indispensable devices used by vision researchers and eye care professionals to map imperfections in the eye’s optical system. Together, using specialized camera and video equipment, they created a non-invasive way to measure how eyes focus on objects, an approach that spurred vision research across the animal kingdom and enabled more effective diagnosis and treatment of eye problems.

Howard – “Howie” to friends and colleagues – traveled the world with evolving versions of his research apparatus to study myriad animals; among them cuttlefish, lizards, chameleons, hawks, owls, dogs, marmosets, crocodiles, and rhinoceros. Working with students and colleagues, he studied his subjects in zoos, nature preserves, and in the wild – including three species of penguins on the rocky, windswept Falkland Islands near Antarctica. Back at his busy lab at Cornell, Howard tracked the development of eyes in humans from infancy to adulthood. And over his career he published close to 200 scientific papers.

Born in Lafayette, Indiana, Howard enrolled in the University of Chicago at age 15 and was later drafted into the U.S. Army, serving in South Korea and Japan from 1953 to 1955. He taught Biological Sciences at the State University of New York at Oyster Bay (now SUNY Stony Brook) and conducted research at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology at Seewiesen, Germany on how fish stay oriented as they swim. He became an assistant professor at Cornell in 1969, mentoring generations of wonderful undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students who, like Howard, have helped advance the field of physiological optics.

Howard is survived by his wife Monica, sons Frank (Elizabeth Justice), Jacob (Jennifer Howland), and David (Victoria Banyard), eight grandchildren, and five great- grandchildren. 

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, December 13, 2025, in the auditorium of Kendal at Ithaca. 

Donations can be made in memory of Howard Howland to Kendal at Ithaca at 2230 Triphammer Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850 or submitted electronically via Kendal’s website at https://kai.kendal.org.