Meet the Dean

Aaron Bowman

Interim Dean, College of Health and Human Sciences

Professor, School of Health Sciences

Aaron Bowman began his professional career in 2006 as an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, where he earned academic tenure and held a variety of positions, including director of Vanderbilt University’s T32 Training Program in Environmental Toxicology.

In 2018, Bowman joined Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) as a professor and head of the School of Health Sciences. Under his leadership, the school has experienced significant enrollment growth and has doubled the number of students in its honors program.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Brigham Young University and a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of California, San Diego. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at both Princeton University and Baylor College of Medicine.

Professor Bowman’s research program seeks to define the mechanisms at the intersection of environmental and genetic risk factors of neuronal dysfunction and disease using human stem cell-based models. He leads an innovative lab that uses a combined approach in molecular genetics, pharmacology, biochemistry, and cell and developmental biology to understand the role of gene-environment interactions in relation to metal exposure and neurodegenerative diseases. He is also a member of Purdue’s Interdisciplinary Life Science Program and serves as a mentor to many health sciences student researchers.

Bowman has an extensive history of scholarly achievement. He is the president-elect of the International Neurotoxicology Association and a member of the Society of Toxicology. He also serves on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Advisory Board on Toxic Substances and Worker Health (Advisory Board, Scientific Community, 2020-2024). In 2008, he received the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Bowman is currently serving as interim dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, succeeding Marion K. Underwood, who served as HHS dean from 2018-23.