[4] In 2016, he received the Dawkins & Strutt grant from the British Medical Association to study pain treatment.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering from the Dartmouth College, and graduate degrees from The London School of Economics and the University of Oxford.

His PhD in Philosophy of medicine at the London School of Economics was conducted under the supervision of Professors Nancy Cartwright and John Worrall, with a thesis entitled Philosophical essentials in evidence-based medicine: Evaluating the epistemological role of double blinding and placebo controls, published in 2008.

He subsequently competed in internationals for Canada at the 1994 World Championships, and won a silver medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

[11] His main post now is at the University of Leicester where he is the director of the Stoneygate Centre for Excellence in Empathic Healthcare.

[12] Howick designed a trial of placebo treatments for back pain for a BBC Horizon documentary.