Archie Howie is a pioneer in transmission electron microscopy, a powerful technique that uses electrons to image structures in thin materials or biological specimens at an extremely high magnification and resolution. Archie is best known for his work to interpret transmission electron microscope images of crystals and their defects.

In the late 1950s, jointly with Michael Whelan, he developed the dynamical theory of image contrast from dislocations — defects in the lattice of crystals. He then investigated the effects of inelastic scattering and of channelling of electrons in crystals on the image contrast. Together with four others, all subsequently elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, he co-authored the influential text, Electron Microscopy of Thin Crystals (1965). More recently, he developed electron energy loss theory for the scanning transmission electron microscope.

Archie’s contributions have been honoured with a number of awards, including the 1992 Guthrie Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1995. He received a CBE in 1998 for services to electron microscopy.