Joseph H. Howey was a physicist and academic administrator at the Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...

. He was the director of Georgia Tech's School of Physics

Georgia Institute of Technology School of Physics

The School of Physics is an academic unit located within the College of Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology . It conducts both research and teaching activities related to physics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The School of Physics offers Bachelors degrees in Physics or...

 for 28 years, from 1935 to 1963.

Early life

Howey received a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster in 1923, and a PhD from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1930. Howey was also a physicist in Firestone Tire and Rubber Corp

Firestone

-Harvey Firestone family:*Harvey Samuel Firestone , founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company*Harvey Samuel Firestone, Jr., son of Firestone founder*Elizabeth Parke Firestone, daughter-in-law of Harvey Firestone and mother of Martha Firestone...

's research laboratory from 1929 to 1931, after which he returned to Yale as a instructor.

Georgia Tech

In 1934, Howey became a professor of physics at Georgia Tech, and in 1935 he became the director of the school's physics department, where he was instrumental in establishing a standard curriculum and creating graduate and PhD programs. In 1963, Howey requested to be "associate director" so that he could focus on the design of the new physics building, and was succeeded in his post by Vernon Crawford.

Three years after his death, on September 17, 1976, the physics building he helped design was dedicated and named in his honor.