Commanding Officer

William Howard
Captain, Medical Service Corps
Commanding Officer
Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton

 Captain William Howard, a native of Kentucky, earned a master’s degree in toxicology from Johns Hopkins University in 1995 and a doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of Kentucky in 2001.  He entered the U.S. Navy Medical Service Corps as a Lieutenant in 2002 and was assigned as an instructor at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
From 2004 to 2007 he was a member of the Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit East at the Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit Two in Norfolk, Virginia.  He deployed to Kuwait in 2006 and established the theater’s first advanced chemical and biological threat agent analysis capability.
From 2007 to 2010 he was assigned as Officer-in-Charge of the Naval Research Laboratory Detachment at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland where he was Naval Liaison to the US Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command.
From 2010 to 2014, he served as Department Head of Environmental Toxicology at the Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.  His research included an evaluation of atmospheric standards on submarines with an emphasis on female reproductive health in the wake of the mandate to allow women to serve on submarines.
From 2014 to 2016, Captain Howard served as the Deputy Director for Weapons of Mass Destruction Defense in the Office of Readiness and Health at the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Falls Church, Virginia where he also served as the Navy Medicine representative to the NATO Medical Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Working Group.
From 2016 to 2019, he served as the Executive Officer of the Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio overseeing Navy Medicine's Environmental Health and Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories.
From 2019 to 2021, Captain Howard served as the Commanding Officer of the Naval Medical Research Unit Six where he oversaw Infectious Disease and Tropical Medicine Research and surveillance at the only United States Department of Defense command in headquartered in South America.
Before assuming command of Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton on May 31, 2024, He was a Scientific Advisor and Researcher at the Environmental Health Effects Laboratory at NAMRU-Dayton.
His personal awards include the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (two awards).