My old Cornell apartment mate!

Just got a phone call from one of my college roommates! Kim Howell lives in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and has been a professor in the Department of Zoology and Wildlife Management at the University of Dar es Salaam since not long after we graduated from Cornell together in 1967! We've been in touch some by e-mail over the past few years, and he is in the states now visiting his father, sister, etc, and we got to talk by phone a bit. First conversation since 1967! Kim is going to talk with our other apartment mate - John Day - later tonight, and maybe I'll get to talk with him soon too? Last time I saw John was about 15 years ago in New York City while I was there for the gift show. Thanks for the call Kim, and safe trip home, and continued health and creative work to do!

Information below gleaned from the web.

Kim M. Howell

Professor Kim M. Howell has been a staff member of the Univesity of Dar es Salaam since 1970, where he is currently a Professor in the Dept. of Zoology & Wildlife Conservation. He has broad interests in the ecology and distribution of small mammals, birds and reptiles and amphibians and is the author of numerous publications and several books. His field work in Tanzania's biodiversity hotspots has yielded shrew and frog species new to science.

Academic Qualifications

BSc Cornell University, Ithaca New York, 1967;

PhD, Univ. of Dar es Salaam, 1976

Teaching

Undergraduate courses in chordate biology, Mammalogy, Herpetology and Ornithology; Environmental Impact Assessment

Research

Monitoring small vertebrate biodiversity; Environmental Impact Assessment

Biodiversity Monitoring Techniques; Taxonomy, biogeography, ecology and

conservation of small vertebrates; Biology of bird and mammal pest species and their

control; Management of the live animal trade; The use and maintenance of specimen

collections and electronic biodiversity databases as research, management and

educational tools. Currently I am, with Prof Alan Channing of University of Western

Cape, completing a book on the Amphibians of East Africa.

Most important publications:

Harvey, W.G., and Howell, K.M. 1987. The birds of the Dar es Salaam area. Le Gerfaut 77: 205-­258.

Broadley, D.G. and Howell, K.M. 1991 A checklist and key to the reptiles of Tanzania. Syntarsus 1: 1-70.

Howell, K.M. 1993 Chapter 9. The herpetofauna of the eastern forests of Africa.pp. 173-201. In Lovett, J. and Wasser, S.(eds.). The Biogeography and Ecology of the Forests of Eastern Africa.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Poynton, J.C., Howell, K.M., Clarke, B.T. & Lovett, J.C. 1998. A critically endangered new species of Nectophrynoides (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Kihansi Gorge, Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. African Journal of Herpetology 47: 59-67

Spawls, S., Drewes, R., Howell, & Ashe, J. 2002 A Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa. Academic Press, London. 2nd printing .

Consultancy:

Major consultancies include environmental baseline surveys and environmental impact studies for three gold mines (Bulyanhulu, Ashanti-Geita, and Tulawaka), the Lower Kihansi Hydropower Project, and Songo Songo Natural Gas Pipeline. Other consultancy has included Biodiversity Baseline Studies for the Usangu Wetland (SMUCW project) and Rufiji Environmental Management Project (REMP) and others, as well as a programme designed to reduce bird hazards and bird strikes to aircraft at Dar es Salaam International Airport.