Dr. Anthony Lowman, the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rowan University, has been awarded the Educator of the Year Award for his work at Rowan University at the 2024 Edison Patent for his work on improving Rowan’s community and campus in the third fastest-growing public research university in the United States. 

According to the Research and Development Council of New Jersey, “For more than 40 years, the R&D Council has recognized and highlighted the broad array of research conducted in the state and celebrated its exceptional inventors in an annual award ceremony named for Thomas Alva Edison, New Jersey’s — and perhaps the world’s — most famous inventor. Winners are selected by a team of R&D Council researchers who evaluate nominated patents based on the significance of the problem addressed, its utility/socioeconomic value, novelty, and commercial impact.” 

Lowman attributes this award to all the university has accomplished to grow while he is in the position to facilitate this improvement. 

“I think this speaks to all the great things that Rowan has done as an institution. This shows how we really are on the map and how we are a driver in higher education in the state of New Jersey,” Lowman said. “As the Provost in charge of the academics, I got to collect the award on behalf of what the rest of us are doing.”

Rowan has made advancements to the campus that were getting recognized on a state level. That motivates Lowman and Rowan to continue to strive to make the university the best that it can be. This new recognition now brings new eyes to the university and more expectations to do great things. It also feeds into the need to figure out that you are doing something good and hoping to continue and improve on that current success.

Some of the improvements that Rowan has made are their research and expansion for more opportunities for college students to continue their education. The current services that Rowan has in place are the career and counseling services that aid with the positive continuation of student’s well-being academically, financially, and personally.

“I think we’re going to continue to create more and more exceptional undergraduate experiences for our students, both in and out of the classroom. We’re gonna drive the research being produced at this university to a greater level. We’re going to expand our online offerings so we can reach more students inside our region, outside our region,” Lowman said. “Then we got some pretty big new schools open up. We got a vet school we got to open up. We’ve got a nursing school that is going to be opening up, a position assistant program, so we’re just gonna keep that same trajectory we’re doing and continue to get better at the things that we’ve already been doing.”

In the future, Lowman wants to continue to improve on the things that he and the university believe are important, which is the student’s well-being. He hangs his hat on making sure that students are getting the most out of their college experience academically and professionally.

“We focus on the one thing that is the most important thing we do as an academic institution, that is educating you and your peers and making you successful,” Lowman said. “I think we really want to continue. Our goal is to have as many of our students graduate and be successful as possible.”

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