Ken Howell

As curator of the National Aquarium’s rain forest and Australia exhibits, Ken Howell oversees the care of all the animals and plants in Upland Tropical Rain Forest, Amazon River Forest, Sea Cliffs and Australia: Wild Extremes. He leads a team of 18 staff members, including assistant curators, aquarists, aviculturists, herpetologists and horticulturists. He starts each day early, walking through the exhibits to make sure all the animals and plants are flourishing and that everything is running smoothly.

Prior to joining the National Aquarium in 2005, Ken worked for 17 years as a senior biologist and assistant general curator at Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences. He began his career right after college caring for animals at a facility in Florida that had more than 50 species of primates.

He holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo.