September 9, 2024  — The UVA Medical Alumni Association is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2024 Walter Reed Distinguished Achievement Award: Matthew A. Howard, III, MD ’85.

Dr. Howard is professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Iowa. He received his undergraduate degree in physics from Tufts University. As a medical student at the University of Virginia, he collaborated with neurosurgery resident Dr. Sean Grady and Physics Professor Rogers Ritter to invent the magnetic surgery system, whereby flexible implants within the body are guided by externally generated magnetic fields. That system is now used to perform robotic cardiac ablation procedures in patients throughout the world.

Dr. Howard received his neurosurgery residency training at the University of Washington, and during his residency he was awarded an NIH Individual National Research Award to pursue post-doctoral fellowship training in cortical electrophysiology research. In 1993, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa and established the Human Brain Research Laboratory (HBRL) with collaborating neuroscience colleagues at the University of Iowa and throughout the U.S. and overseas. HBRL researchers study neurosurgery patients who require brain mapping procedures as part of their clinical treatment plan. Findings from these studies have advanced our knowledge of how neural processes within the human brain enable us to communicate and experience emotions. These findings are regularly published in leading scientific journals including Nature, Nature Neuroscience, and Nature Communications.

Dr. Howard has received continuous NIH funding as a principal investigator since 1995. As chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Iowa, he directs and oversees a high acuity surgical service where more than 3,000 major neurosurgical procedures are performed and over 14,000 clinic patients are evaluated each year. He also serves as the physician co-chair, along with the hospital CEO co-chair, of the Clinical Systems Committee that oversees clinical operations for the University of Iowa Healthcare system.

In 2014, he was selected by the Society of Neurological Surgery as the recipient of the Winn Prize, which is the specialty’s highest award for career achievement in neuroscience research. He is an experienced medical device inventor with 36 issued U.S. Patents, and he has co-founded four university spin-off medical device companies. In 2019, Dr. Howard was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

He is married to children’s book author Delia Ray Howard who is a 1985 graduate of UVA’s College of Arts and Sciences. They have three daughters, including Lily Howard who graduated from UVA’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2017.

Congratulations to Dr. Howard on this well-deserved award.