Robert D. Mowry, a scholar who first became interested in Asian art during his time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Korea, has been appointed Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

The curatorship is a new post endowed by a gift from Alan J. Dworsky, who received his MBA from Harvard in 1966 and has been involved in Harvard's Art Museums for a number of years.

Mowry, who is currently the head of the Asian Department at the Sackler, has authored four books on the field of Chinese art, and has particular expertise in the field of Chinese ceramics, James Cuno, Cabot Director of Harvard University Arts Museums, said in a press release.

"Bob is the perfect scholar to hold this new curatorship," Cuno said.

Mowry began his career at Harvard in 1977 at the Fogg Art Museum as an Assistant Curator of Oriental Art. He left Harvard to serve as the curator of a collection at New York's Asia Society between 1980 and 1986. He then returned to Harvard as the Curator of Chinese Art, and was appointed head of the Asian department in 1992.

His current research focuses on the architecture of ancient Chinese kilns, and its effects on ceramics fired within them.

In addition to his work at the Museums, Mowry is a Senior Lecturer on Chinese and Korean Art in Harvard's Department of the History of Art and Architecture.

Dworsky has been a Fogg Fellow for a number of years, and has served a member of the museum's collections committee since 1997. Dworsky said in a press release that it was his and his wife Suzanne's shared interest in the visual arts that inspired them to endow this chair.

"It is exciting to be able to support the study of the history and culture of Chinese art at the Art Museums," Dworsky wrote.

The Department of Asian Art at the Sackler Museum is one of the largest in Harvard University Art Museums and includes over 18,700 works of art. The collections include archaic jades and a collection of paintings that includes 30 masterworks. The collection also includes extensive Korean art holdings as well as Thai and other Southeast Asian illuminated manuscripts.