Dr. Howley is the Shattuck Professor of Pathological Anatomy at Harvard Medical School, where he chairs the Department of Pathology. He moved to Harvard in 1993 after twenty years at the National Institutes of Health, where he was the Chief of the Laboratory of Tumor Virus Biology of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Howley chaired the National Cancer Policy Board of the National Academy of Sciences from 1996 to 2000, and served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the NCI from 1995 to 1996. He was the President of the American Society of Virology from 1998 to 1999. He is currently the President of the American Society of Investigative Pathology.

After receiving his A.B. in chemistry from Princeton University, Dr. Howley began his medical training at Rutgers Medical School where he received an M.M.S. in 1970. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1972. After a year of internship training at Massachusetts General Hospital, he moved to the Laboratory of Biology of Viruses at NIAID where he did postdoctoral training in molecular virology with Malcolm A. Martin. In 1975 he moved to the NCI to complete his training in Pathology, and is board certified in Anatomic Pathology. He became a Principal Investigator in the Laboratory of Pathology in 1977 and in 1984 was made Chief of the Laboratory of Tumor Virus Biology of the NCI, where he remained until 1993, when he joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Howley's research has focused on the molecular biology of the papillomaviruses, and in particular on the role of the HPV in cervical cancer in women. He is credited with determining the mechanisms by which HPVs contribute to cancer. His current research deals with papillomavirus virus-host cell interactions and a further understanding of the molecular pathways involved in HPV associated carcinogenesis.

Among the awards that Dr. Howley has received are the Wallace P. Rowe Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis and Rous-Whipple Awards from the American Society of Investigative Pathology, and the Paul Ehrlich-Ludwig Darmstaedter Award (shared award). While at the NIH, United States Public Health Service, he received both the Commendation and Meritorious Awards. He received a MERIT award from the NCI in 2000.

In 1993, Dr. Howley was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1994 and to the American Academy of Arts and Science in 1996. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He serves on the editorial boards for PNAS, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Laboratory Investigation and the International Journal of Cancer.