Howarter initiated a safety program with MSE graduate students in 2012. That group was recognized with the inaugural Presidential Safety Award in 2013 for encouraging a strong culture of laboratory safety among graduate students. Howarter's research focuses on surface and interfacial phenomena of soft materials including new synthesis and processing methods to improve performance of desalination membranes and design studies of functional polymer-clay nanocomposites.

As the faculty advisor for undergraduate and graduate MSE student organizations, Howarter has been a leader in building and maintaining a workplace safety culture for students, faculty and staff. He is noted for demonstrating “personal leadership in expanding the safety culture by ensuring effective transitions of key responsibilities to new faculty and staff, aligning MSE with Radiological and Environmental Management, and helping MSE to be responsive to changes in university safety policy.”