Fares Howari

Dr. Fares Howari is an environmental scientist, engineer, and educational administrator. Prof Howari serves as a Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fort Valley State University. The College is currently educating nearly 1,700 students and offers seventeen majors leading to a bachelor’s degree and he is leading the College organizationally and financially. In his current role, Prof Howari supports faculty and staff and is actively engaged in building community relationships and advocating for the College within the University and beyond.  Prior to that, he served as Dean of the College of Natural and Health Sciences (CNHS) at Zayed University, UAE for eight years.

His career started in the examination of technical issues relating to soil, water, geoscience, and the environment, before entering leadership roles where he successfully coordinated major research programs, culminating in a consultancy capacity on all aspects of environmental sciences, particularly the social and policy aspects of natural resource management. With more than 25 years of technical and management experience in a wide range of research and education projects, he has published over 180 research studies, including two books, and has successfully delivered many research projects to completion in leading universities, including in the USA and the Middle East. His latest research success is the collaboration with the Max-Planck Institute of Germany, on the dust storms research cluster project (2 million Euro Campaign). This cluster has yielded collaboration in a major regional project that performs pioneering field measurements across the Arabian Basin in the summer, using a comprehensively instrumented research vessel to characterize atmospheric chemistry and aerosol processes simultaneously.

Prof. Howari is highly esteemed in his field, as demonstrated by the prestigious awards in recognition of his expertise and achievements received from the UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Bureau of Economic Geology (Texas), and the Author Achievement Award among others. In 2019, Prof. Fares Howari received the Distinguished Yarmouk University Alumni Award (an esteemed award at Yarmouk University in Jordan). The Award was presented by HE Dr. Abdullah Ensour (former Prime Minister of Jordan) to YU distinguished Alumni, Dr. Howari, in 2020. Dr. Howari has received several Appreciation Awards on behalf of the Ministry of Energy, Federal Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Ministry of Education, Dubai Police, Think Science, the Directorate of Education of RAK, Merit Awards from Zayed University, and many others.

Dr. Howari has valuable experience in management, strategic planning, administration, program development, and creative leadership. In addition to his highly successful research, Prof. Howari has considerable experience in designing, accreditation, and implementing academic programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and master’s levels. He has led the accreditation and reaccreditation of numerous programs from national and international accreditation bodies, including the CAA, WASC, SACS, and the Middle States Commission for Higher Education. He co-organized one of the largest ‘Think’ science fair with 3000 students showcasing 700 innovative projects. His commitment to teaching and learning is also evident in his role on academic committees and positions of academic leadership. Throughout his career, he has helped establish new initiatives, including the Math Café, the Faculty workload model or renovating spaces to provide better research infrastructure, for example opening of the Hydroponic, Aeroponic, Hyperspectral, and Remote Sensing, and Coral propagation laboratories. He has helped enhance student recruitment, retention and performance, teaching and learning, and research performance.